BX  5937  .B75  A3  1905 
Brent,  Charles  Henry,  1862 

1929. 
Adventure  for  God 


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AD\rENTURE  FOR  GOD 

THE  BISHOP  PADDOCK  LECTURES 

1904 


ADVENTURE  FOR  GOD 


BY 
The  Rt.  Rev.  CHARLES  H.  BRENT 

Bishop  of  the  Philippine  Islands 


NEVER  ERST  KNEW  I  OF  SO  HIGH  ADVENTURES 
DONE,     AND     SO     MARVELLOUS     AND    STRANGE 


LONGMANS,  GREEN,  AND  CO. 

91  AND  93  FIFTH  AVENUE,  NEW  YORK 

LONDON  AND  BOMBAY 

1907 


COPYRIGHT,   1905,  BY  LONGMANS,  GREEN,  AND  CO. 

FIRST  EDITION,  DECEMBER,   1905 
REPRINTED,  JANUARY,   1907 


D.   B.  UPDIKE,  THE  MERRYMOUNT  PRESS,  BOSTON 


TO 

MY  FRIENDS 

MARY  BRYANT  BRANDEGEE 

AND 

GEORGE  C.  AND  ADA  E.   M.  THOMAS 

WHOSE  SYMPATHETIC  AND  GENEROUS  AID 

HELPED  ME  IN 

AN  ADVENTURE  FOR  GOD 


PREFACE 

WHEN  I  accepted  the  invitation  to  deliver  the 
Paddock  lectures  I  had  in  mind  a  subject  some- 
what different  from  the  one  which  I  finally  chose — or, 
to  speak  more  accurately,  which  chose  me.  My  read- 
ing and  thinking  for  nearly  three  years  had  been  oc- 
cupied with  a  consideration  of  the  evolution  and  char- 
acter of  national  life.  Ordinarily  a  man  can  speak  with 
greatest  force  and  sanity  on  a  topic  in  which  he  has 
been  interested,  not  as  a  lecture-theme,  but  as  a  study 
congenial  with  his  tastes  and  pursued  for  personal  edi- 
fication. Accordingly  I  plunged  with  enthusiasm  into 
the  preparation  of  six  lectures,  to  be  entitled  The  In- 
carnation and  National  Life. 

Those  who  were  wiser  than  I  in  the  matter  (though 
I  did  not  think  so  at  the  moment)  advised  me  to  se- 
lect a  less  academic  line.  The  missionary  opportunity 
was  suggested  as  a  good  subject.  But  I  stubbornly 
continued  along  my  original  course  until  within  a  few 
days  of  the  time  set  for  the  delivery  of  the  first  lec- 
ture. The  manuscript  of  the  whole  series  was  ready 
for  final  revision,  and  it  seemed  as  though  no  alter- 
native were  left  me  but  to  use  it,  when  one  of  those 


viii  PREFACE 

irresistible  but  kindly  waves  of  influence  which  I  sup- 
pose every  one  has  at  one  time  or  another  experienced, 
swept  in  and  conquered  me. 

It  was  irresistible  in  that  I  was  convinced  that  the 
subject  as  I  had  developed  it  would  not  fulfil  the  pur- 
pose of  the  trust  committed  to  me;  had  I  continued 
to  kick  against  the  pricks  the  words  of  the  lectures 
would  have  fallen  from  my  lips  as  dry  as  chips  from  a 
dead  tree.  It  was  kindly  in  that  I  was  not  left  naked. 
A  vision  of  the  course  as  actually  delivered  rose  be- 
fore me  with  sufficient  clearness  and  inspiration  to 
give  me  courage  to  appeal  simply  and  directly  to  the 
splendid  young  manhood  before  me  to  make  large 
ventures  for  God. 

I  need  hardly  say  that  in  this  precipitate  change  I 
was  not  plunging  into  a  sphere  of  thought  new  to  me. 
The  change  was  one  of  form  rather  than  of  substance, 
for  I  was  able  to  use  a  good  deal  of  the  material  ga- 
thered under  my  earlier  inspiration.  I  abandoned,  how- 
ever, the  academic  for  the  practical,  and  in  doing  so 
forfeited  that  direct  preparation  by  means  of  which  a 
speaker  strives  to  put  his  ideas  into  the  best  shape  for 
effective  delivery,  and  gains  composure  for  public  ut- 


PREFACE  ix 

terance — unless  he  is  too  intense  and  lays  too  great 
stress  on  form,  in  which  event  he  suffers  the  penalty 
of  excess,  falling  into  confusion  or  being  distracted  by 
anxiety. 

Indirect  preparation  for  a  sermon  gives  the  mate- 
rial and  balance ;  direct  preparation  is  chiefly  the  pla- 
cing of  the  ci*ude  tool  on  the  emery-wheel  for  its  final 
polish.  Neither  may  be  neglected  without  serious  loss, 
but  the  latter  without  the  former  yields  an  untem- 
pered  instrument,  or,  to  change  the  simile,  clouds  with- 
out water.  Those  who  heard  these  lectures  delivered 
will  readily  recall  how  crude  and  rough-hewn  they 
were  in  form.  They  were  given  without  manuscript; 
but  a  retentive  memory  and  such  notes  as  I  had,  have 
enabled  me  to  reproduce  in  the  written  page  the  best, 
if  not  all,  of  that  which  was  originally  said,  together 
with  considerable  amplification. 

I  cannot  refrain  from  expressing  the  gratitude  with 
which  I  recall  the  full  attendance  and  generous  hear- 
ing accorded  me  throughout  the  course.  The  power 
of  a  public  address  is  in  part  the  contribution  of  those 
who  hear  it.  A  sensitive  speaker  en  rapport  with  his 
audience  is  always  lifted  above  his  own  level.  By  in- 


X  PREFACE 

fluences  more  easily  felt  than  described  he  discerns 
and  appropriates  the  aspirations  of  his  hearers,  giv- 
ing them  back  their  own,  clad  in  new  garments, — a 
process  which  the  students  of  the  General  Theological 
Seminary  made  it  easy  for  me  to  employ  throughout 
the  course  of  my  lectures  on  Adventure Jhr  God. 


Manila,  P.  I. 
September  5,  1905 


CONTENTS 


I.    THE    VISION 
II.    THE    APPEAL 

III.  THE    RESPONSE 

IV.  THE    QUEST 

V.    THE    EQUIPMENT 
VI.    THE    GOAL 


PAGE 
1 

31 

57 

83 
115 
139 


LECTURE  I 

THE  VISION 

And  anon  as  he  nms  asleep,  him  bejel  a  vision,  that  there  came 
to  him  two  birds,  the  ofie  as  ivhite  as  a  swan,  and  the  other 
was  marvellous  black,  but  it  was  not  so  gj'eat  as  the  other,  but 
i?i  the  likeness  of  a  raven.  Then  the  white  bird  came  to  him, 
and  said,  An  thou  wouldstgive  me  meat  and  serve  me,  I  should 
give  thee  all  the  riches  of  the  ivorld,  and  I  shall  make  thee  as 
fair  and  as  white  as  I  am.  So  the  white  bird  depaj-ted,  and  then 
came  the  black  bird  to  him,  and  said.  An  thou  wilt  serve  me 
to-morrow,  and  have  me  in  no  despite,  though  I  be  black,  for 
wit  thou  well  that  more  availeth  my  blackness,  than  the  other  s 
whiteness.  .  .for  ye  be  Jesu  Christ's  knights,  therefore  ye 
ought  to  be  defenders  of  holy  Church.  And  by  the  black  bird 
might  ye  uiiderstaiid  the  holy  Church,  which  saith  I  am  black, 
but  he  is  fair. ^ 

I 

1  WOULD  direct  my  appeal  in  these  lectures  to  the 
imagination  rather  than  to  the  intellect,  by  which 
I  mean  that  my  ambition  is  to  reach  your  logical  fa- 
culty, as  well  as  all  that  goes  to  make  up  your  soul  or 
self,  by  way  of  the  imagination.  Life  is  a  romance  from 
first  to  last  if  you  will  allow  it  to  be.  The  mere  utili- 
tarian, with  all  his  practical  ability  and  scom  of  the 
intangible,  is  as  apt  to  leave  behind  him  a  trail  of  de- 
solation as  to  render  beneficent  service  to  his  fellows. 
The  damage  done,  on  the  other  hand,  by  the  imprac- 

1  Quotations  introducing  chapters  are  taken  from  Le  Morte  d' Ar- 
thur. 


2  ADVENTURE   FOR   GOD 

tical  idealist  is  just  as  grievous,  though  of  a  different 
order.  He  does  so  little  that  the  waste  which  marks  his 
path  is  covered  thick  with  unplucked  weeds  that  choke 
such  grain  as  he  may  have  sowed.  But  the  child  of 
Christian  romance  whets  his  power  to  do  with  his  power 
to  see.  He  desires  above  all  else  to  live  an  effective  life, 
that  is  to  say,  to  leave  a  permanent  mark  for  good  on 
society. 
^  Efficiency  does  not  consist  either  in  cold  knowledge 
or  bald  skill.  At  its  helm  stands  motive;  aloft,  trim- 
ming its  sails,  are  sympathy,  sentiment  and  purpose. 
The  poetic  side  of  our  nature — every  one  has  it  more 
or  less — is  the  main  link  that  binds  humanity  to  the 
unseen  universe  and  Him  who  presides  over  things  visi- 
ble and  invisible.  By  means  of  it  our  lower  self  mounts 
as  on  a  ladder  into  the  region  of  the  stars,  where  alone 
we  can  learn  life  in  its  true  proportions  and  the  large 
value  of  the  common  deeds  of  the  common  day. 

Perhaps  the  earliest  requisite  of  an  effective  life  is  a 
vision.  The  record  of  human  experience  compels  the 
assertion.  Often  enough  a  richly  endowed  character  will 
loaf  halfway  down  life's  journey  doing  worse  than  no- 
thing, or  else  will  diligently  use  his  gifts  to  others"* 
hurt.  Suddenly  an  unseen  hand  touches  his  eyes  and  he 
awakes  to  responsibility.  He  has  had  a  vision.  Dreams 
give  place  to  action,  weeds  to  flowei*s. 
It  was  concurrently  with  Abraham's  vision  and  the 


THE   VISION  3 

outcome  of  it  that,  at  the  age  of  seventy-five,  he  be- 
gan that  hfe  of  marvellous  adventure  that  left  him  at 
its  close  a  towering  character  imperishably  enthroned 
among  the  world's  heroes.  Saul  of  Tarsus  was  an  angel 
of  destruction  before  he  was  enlightened  by  the  hea- 
venly vision,  which  compelled  him  to  turn  about  in  his 
tracks  and  become  the  foremost  leader  in  Christian 
theology  and  ethics  for  all  time.  Even  Jesus  had  to  have 
His  vision  before  He  could  enter  upon  His  public  min- 
istry. In  its  power  thirty  years  of  obscurity  burst  into 
three  years  of  splendour  so  great  as  to  dazzle  the  sun's 
rays.  Confucius,  Zoroaster,  Gautama,  each  had  a  cog- 
nate experience. 

But  the  need  of  a  heavenly  vision  belongs  not  solely 
to  religious  characters,  but  to  manhood  as  such.  How- 
ever we  may  undertake  to  explain  it,  or  even  if  we  offer 
no  interpretation  whatever,  it  stands  as  a  necessary  ele- 
ment in  the  effective  life,  sometimes  taking  the  form  of 
moral  insight,  as  in  the  case  of  a  man  like  John  Stuart 
Mill;  sometimes  breaking  into  a  tide  of  sympathetic 
service,  as  when  Francis  of  Assisi  lived  and  loved ;  or 
again  rising  into  fervent  patriotism  in  a  Cavour  and  a 
Lincoln,  into  poetry,  as  in  a  Dante  and  a  Shakespeare. 

When  Maeterlinck  says,  "Let  us  rejoice.  .  .  in  re- 
gions higher  than  the  little  truths  that  our  eyes  can 
seize,"  he  is  inviting  men  to  make  use  of  their  latent 
or  undeveloped  capacity  to  see  visions.  It  is  not  neces- 


4  ADVENTURE   FOR   GOD 

sary  to  say  that  I  am  not  using  the  word  vision  in  any 
narrow  sense,  or  restricting  it  to  the  ecstatic  revela- 
tions which  characterize  mysticism.  I  am  thinking  of 
every  form  of  idealism  which  is  capable  of  fastening 
upon  and  controlling  life  for  its  enduring  welfare.  I 
would  include  in  the  same  high  company  the  vision  of 
the  ideal  state  which  drives  its  happy  victim  to  insti- 
tute a  campaign  against  the  oppression  of  the  poor  or 
corruption  in  politics,  and  the  vision  of  Christ  vouch- 
safed a  S.  Anthony  of  Padua;  the  vision  of  duty  which 
nerves  an  unselfish  arm  to  do  unrecognized  deeds  of 
kindness  in  the  confined  spaces  of  a  cramped  existence, 
and  the  vision  of  a  S.  Paul  who  beats  the  bounds  of 
the  earth  in  his  adventure  for  God.  The  modern  task 
is  not  to  draw  extraordinary  phenomena  down  to  the 
level  of  the  ordinary,  but  to  lift  up  the  ordinary  into 
the  high  sphere  of  the  extraordinary. 

The  story  ^  of  the  young  man  who  entered  upon  his 
career  wedded  to  his  conception  of  what  an  architect's 
life  should  be  is  a  recognition  of  the  existence  to-day 
of  visions  among  men;  and  of  their  power,  too.  He  lost 
his  hold  and  descended  into  the  depths,  but  the  vision 
of  his  youth  was  truer  to  him  than  he  to  it.  At  the 
moment  of  his  shame  it  plucked  him  out  of  the  abyss 
and  reinstated  him  in  his  manhood. 

Is  it  a  small  thing  that  a  man  of  our  day  who  has 
1  Tlte  Common  Lot,  by  Robert  Herrick. 


THE   VISION  5 

pledged  his  powers  to  purity  in  the  realm  of  art  should 
decline — after  a  struggle  as  when  Jesus  was  tempted 
— an  offer  to  make  him  wealthy  if  he  would  lend  his 
gifts  for  a  while  to  that  which  in  his  judgement  was 
unworthy  of  art  ?  His  vision  saved  him  from  sordidness 
and  made  his  temptation  an  opportunity  for  reconse- 
cration  to  his  ideal. 

Or  again  do  we  not  feel  that  it  is  divinely  imparted 
perception  and  courage  that  enable  a  man  to  set  his 
face  against  the  undisciplined  strenuousness  and  the 
ignoble  lust  for  accumulation  which  are  characteristic 
of  modern  American  life  ?  By  a  deliberate  act  he  "stops 
making  money,"  and,  considering  the  joyous  claims  of 
family  life  to  be  paramount,  he  plans  his  occupation 
so  as  to  give  a  lion's  share  of  his  time  to  companion- 
ship with  his  wife  and  children. 

Happily  it  is  not  difficult  to  pick  out  many  such 
richly  illumined  pages  as  these,  which  are  given  as 
samples  from  the  volume  of  contemporary  experience. 
They  contribute  colour  and  form  to  society,  and  make 
us  exclaim  with  Browning's  Pippa — 

God's  in  His  heaven — 
All's  right  with  the  world! 

Now  if  men  of  w  ork-a-day  type  cannot  hope  to  do 
their  best  without  a  vision,  how  deeply  true  it  must  be 
with  those  who  have  embraced  the  greatest  of  pro- 


6  ADVENTURE   FOR   GOD 

fessions, — the  ministry!  I  do  not  hesitate  to  call  the 
ministry  a  profession.  A  profession  is  a  means  of  self- 
expression,  and  the  truly  aspiring  and  ambitious  seek 
a  profession  to  this  end.  It  is  not  sought  merely  from 
a  sense  of  fitness,  from  taste,  or  from  obligation,  but 
from  a  distinct  feeling  of  vocation.  Thus,  and  only 
thus,  does  a  profession  become  an  instiTiment  of  force. 
The  ministry  is  not  only  the  highest  profession,  but 
it  is  the  type  and  ensample  to  be  exhibited  before  our 
fellows  as  the  ideal  to  which  all  other  modes  of  self- 
expression  must  be  made  to  conform.  To  have  this 
constantly  in  view  will  be  in  itself  a  new  incentive  to 
bring  it  to  its  purest  perfection  and  highest  possibili- 
ties. It  is  the  ministry,  not  in  the  sense  of  being  the 
sole  ministry,  but  the  representative  one.  There  is 
nothing  narrow  or  circumscribed  in  the  life  of  a  min- 
ister of  God.  Indeed,  if  it  is  viewed  in  its  true  char- 
acter, it  is  impossible  to  conceive  of  a  more  tremendous 
or  a  more  vitalizing  vocation. 

We  clergy — let  us  face  the  fact — are  called  upon 
to  exhibit  in  our  profession  the  highest  proficiency  in 
practical  matters.  It  may  seem  at  first  sight  to  be  a 
mistake  to  insist  that  the  secret  of  achieving  success 
in  this  respect  lies  in  the  purity  of  our  vision.  But  let 
us  look  into  the  subject.  A  profession,  least  of  all  that 
for  which  you  are  preparing,  can  never  be  an  end  in 
itself;  unless  it  is  considered  in  relation  to  some  great 


THE  VISION  7 

purpose,  it  will  fail  to  be  an  opening  for  self-expres- 
sion. It  may  be  a  means  of  making  money,  of  acquir- 
ing fame,  of  self-gratification ;  but  to  be  a  divine  organ, 
to  sound  forth  the  deep  notes  of  self-fulfilment,  it  must 
be  tuned  to  the  unseen  and  the  infinite  by  the  con- 
stant pressure  of  profound  motive.  Obviously  it  is  in- 
sufficient that  a  man's  main  motive  should  be  his  pro- 
fession. To  accept  as  an  end  what  God  intended  to 
be  a  means  is  to  prepare  life  for  arrested  development. 
For  a  while  the  joy  of  working  may  prove  a  sufficient 
impulse  to  stir  some  of  the  finer  qualities  of  the  soul ; 
but  with  the  advance  of  life,  and  after  contact  with 
the  darker  problems  of  our  human  environment,  it 
will  lapse  into  a  condition  analagous  to  a  shell  de- 
spoiled of  its  kernel.  Unless  a  profession — no  matter 
whether  it  be  that  which  is  distinctively  religious,  or 
that  which  we  ordinarily  call  secular — is  filled  to  the 
brim  with  a  vision,  it  has  neither  dignity,  permanence 
nor  effectiveness. 

What  has  been  neatly  termed  "respectable  ineffi-\ 
ciency"  among  the  clergy  is  more  often  due  to  poverty 
of  inner  experience  than  lack  of  technical  training.  I 
can  conceive  of  no  more  ^\Tetched  fate  than  for  a  young 
man  to  find  himself  in  the  ministry,  solemnly  com- 
missioned to  give  a  vision  to  others  without  ever  hav- 
ing had  one  himself;  charged  with  the  duty  of  spirit- 
ualizing the  commonplace  activities   of  his   fellows 


8  ADVENTURE   FOR   GOD 

without  ever  having  spiritualized  his  own.  He  may  be 
an  intellectual  genius,  a  theologian  and  an  admin- 
istrator, but  he  is  bound  to  be  a  failure.  The  chief 
function  of  the  ministry  is  to  reveal  to  men  a  vision 
—  this  at  least  on  the  prophetic  side.  We  must  unveil 
Christ  and  Christ's  purposes.  They  alone  can  give  a 
vision  who  have  a  vision ;  Elisha  made  the  young  man 
see  the  horses  and  chariots  of  fire  because  he  himself 
saw  them.  And  those  who  have  this  task  to  do — they 
who  wdth  the  consciousness  of  vocation  and  richness 
of  inner  experience,  moral  and  spiritual,  embrace  the 
ministry — have  as  their  sure  fate,  whatever  woes  and 
trials  may  assemble  to  check  them,  the  gladdest  and 
freest,  the  most  influential  and  beneficent  life  that  the 
world  knows. 

It  is  all  very  well,  it  may  be  argued,  to  insist  on  the 
need  of  a  vision,  but  can  one  be  summoned  at  will  ? 
In  answer  I  would  say  that  we  must  expect  it  as  a 
normal  part  of  life,  as  the  bird  expects  its  feathers, 
as  the  chrysalis  its  wings.  "  Inspirableness,  or  the  fa- 
culty of  inspiration,  is  the  supreme  faculty  of  man.''^ 
None  have  this  gift  in  a  higher  degree  than  the  young; 
and  among  the  young,  none  in  greater  measure  than 
they  who  stand  on  the  threshold  or  within  the  gates 
of  the  highest  profession.  The  young  men  see  visions 
— have  insight  as  the  heritage  of  their  youth;  the 
1  BushneU. 


THE   VISION  9 

old  men  dream  dreams — have  the  power  to  extract 
philosophy  from  the  experience  of  their  own  and 
other  history. 

II 

Apostolic  effectiveness  is  the  symbol  of  ministerial 
effectiveness,  and  it  is  not  difficult  to  trace  it  to  its 
source.  The  view  that  the  Apostles  had  of  God's  pur- 
poses so  thrilled  and  conquered  them  that  accom- 
plishment became  more  nearly  commensurate  with 
purpose,  efficiency  with  the  ideal,  than  ever  before.  The 
breadth  and  depth  of  adventure  for  God  were  un- 
folded before  their  eyes.  In  the  activities  of  human 
affairs  a  man  must  be  deep  and  thorough  before  he  is 
broad;  in  motive  and  inner  vision  breadth  precedes 
depth.  Human  consciousness  should  always  transcend 
the  immediate  task  in  hand,  for  the  actual  processes 
of  energy  need  to  be  related  not  only  to  the  activi- 
ties of  others,  but  to  an  ideal,  undone,  whole.  So  it 
was  that  God  laid  before  the  disciples  in  the  infancy 
of  their  Christian  career  the  entire  reach  of  Apostolic 
influence.  Go  ye  therefore^  and  make  disciples  of  all  the 
nations}  Ye  shall  he  my  witnesses  both  in  Jerusalem, 
and  in  all  Judaea  and  Samaria,  and  unto  the  uttermost 
part  of  the  earth} 

This  vision  took  a  twofold  form,  coming  as  a  com 
1  ;Sf.  Matt,  xxviii,  19.  2  j^cts  i,  8. 


10  ADVENTURE   FOR   GOD 

mission  and  as  a  promise.  The  injunction  was  the 
Lord's  last,  or  at  any  rate  His  last  important,  utter- 
ance to  man,  according  to  the  evangelical  biography. 
Now  His  commands  are  always  only  the  imperative 
form  of  human  aspiration,  and  when  He  gives  them 
it  is  as  much  to  fire  His  followers  with  a  sense  of 
privilege  and  opportunity  as  to  impose  upon  them  a 
duty.  Butler,  in  one  of  those  inspired  passages  which 
are  fomid  once  and  again  in  his  writings,  pictures  "a 
kingdom  or  society  of  men  perfectly  virtuous  for  a 
succession  of  many  ages;"  in  which  "public  determi- 
nations would  really  be  the  result  of  the  united  wis- 
dom of  the  community;  and  they  would  faithfully  be 
executed  by  the  united  strength  of  it.^^i  In  other  words 
he  makes  law  or  commandment  merely  a  formal  ex- 
pression of  public  desire.  All  Christ's  commandments 
are  just  that.  They  are  the  intuitive  formulation  of  the 
inner  life  of  the  ideal  man  addressed  to  a  manhood 
destined  to  become  ideal.  As  the  true  preacher,  he  wins 
men  by  revealing  to  them  the  law  of  their  own  lives. 
He  knows  humanity  as  we  do  not  know  it,  and  to  a 
character  that  is  attuned  to  His  law,  even  though  it 
be  of  a  low  grade  of  intelligence.  His  last  dictum  is 
as  sweet  to  the  soul  as  honey  to  the  lips.  Of  course 
there  are  moments  when  the  lower  elements  in  our 
composition  writhe  under  the  exactions  which  the 
1  Butler's  Analogy,  I,  iii,  29. 


THE   VISION  11 

higher  nature  thus  inspired  lays  upon  it;  but  that  is 
of  no  importance,  for  growing  pains  are  necessary  to 
growth. 

Hard  on  the  heels  of  the  command  comes  a  pro- 
phecy, Ye  shall  be  my  witnesses  .  .  .  unto  the  uttermost 
part  of  the  earth.  A  prophecy  is  a  promise,  so  by  an- 
ticipation the  disciples  learn  that  the  ideal  is  to  be 
realized  and  that  they  are  not  merely  to  be  adven- 
turers, but  efficient  adventurers. 

Pursued  to  its  ultimate  principle  the  missionary  com- 
mission and  prophecy  may  be  discerned  to  be  an  as- 
surance that  the  Christian  Gospel  is  self-propagating. 
Plant  the  truth  and  it  is  bound  to  spread,  because  of 
the  inherent  forces  that  control  it.  In  this  it  but  fol- 
lows the  course  of  nature  wherein  lies  as  one  of  its 
most  easily  distinguishable  features  the  law  of  self- 
propagation.  If  self-preservation  is  the  first,  expan- 
sion is  the  second  law  of  existence  throughout  the  uni- 
verse. 

There  is  no  instance  of  an  Apostle  being  driven 
abroad  under  the  compulsion  of  a  bald  command. 
Each  one  went  as  a  lover  to  his  betrothed  on  his  ap- 
pointed errand.  It  was  all  instinctive  and  natural. 
They  were  equally  controlled  by  the  common  vision, 
but  they  had  severally  personal  visions  which  drew 
them  whither  they  were  needed.  In  the  first  days  of 
Christianity  there  is  an  absence  of  the  calculating 


12  ADVENTURE   FOR   GOD 

spirit.  Most  of  the  Apostles  died  outside  of  Palestine, 
though  human  logic  would  have  forbidden  them  to 
leave  the  country  until  it  had  been  Christianized.  The 
calculating  instinct  is  death  to  faith,  and  had  the 
Apostles  allowed  it  to  control  their  motives  and  ac- 
tions they  would  have  said:  "The  need  in  Jerusalem 
is  so  profound,  our  responsibilities  to  people  of  our 
own  blood  so  obvious,  that  we  must  live  up  to  the 
principle  that  charity  begins  at  home.  After  we  have 
won  the  people  of  Jerusalem,  of  Judea  and  of  the 
Holy  Land  in  general,  then  it  will  be  time  enough  to 
go  abroad;  but  our  problems,  political,  moral  and  re- 
ligious, are  so  unsolved  here  in  this  one  spot  that  it 
is  manifestly  absurd  to  bend  our  shoulders  to  a  new 
load.'"*  For  aught  we  know  discussions  bringing  out 
this  thought  may  have  taken  place,  but  if  so  they 
made  such  a  faint  impression  that  there  is  no  record 
of  them. 

Antioch,  a  young  missionary  Church,  did  not  hesi- 
tate to  contribute  S.  Paul,  whose  aid  it  must  have 
sadly  needed,  so  that  he  might  make  his  bold  venture 
among  the  nations.  Stephen,  the  proto-martyr,  lost 
his  life  because  he  insisted  on  being  missionary  in  the 
broadest  sense. 

When  we  read  the  history  as  it  has  come  to  us  of 
the  earliest  beginnings  of  the  Church,  it  is  a  little  dif- 
ficult to  understand  how  it  was,  with  all  the  concise 


THE   VISION  13 

instruction  which  Christians  had  received  from  Christ's 
own  lips,  that  they  should  have  been  even  as  slow  as 
they  were  in  launching  out  into  the  deep.  But  we 
must  remember,  in  the  first  place,  that  we  have  in 
our  hands,  so  to  speak,  an  expurgated  and  condensed 
Gospel.  What  was  of  prime  value  had  to  be  separated 
from  that  which  was  of  lesser  importance.  This  end 
was  reached  by  a  process  of  spiritual  selection,  the 
disciples  learning  perspective  only  by  experience.  In 
one  sense  the  story  of  Jesus  Christ  is  the  least  com- 
plete history  in  literature;  in  another,  and  in  the  best 
sense,  it  is  so  perfect  that  had  we  a  less  abridged  and 
a  more  prolix  record  we  would  be  poorer  instead  of 
richer.  With  that  incomparable  delicacy  of  touch  which 
is  found  everywhere  in  Christ's  dealing  with  men,  and 
with  that  reverence  for  the  human  character  which 
made  Him  far  more  hesitant  in  the  imposition  of  com- 
mandments than  any  other  leader  of  men,  He  has 
given  us  the  opportunity  of  faith, — and  what  is  com- 
parable with  it!  Having  spoken  words  that  were  in 
tune  with  human  appetites  and  human  aspirations. 
He  was  content  to  bide  His  time  and  to  wait  for  the 
flowering  season  of  the  seed  that  He  had  sown.  His- 
tory justifies  both  principle  and  method.  The  Church 
has  never  suffered  through  her  zeal  for  expansion,  and 
she  never  responds  to  mere  mandatory  decrees  or  false 
stimulation.  Experience  soon  showed  that  Christian 


14  ADVENTURE   FOR   GOD 

vitality  is  best  preserved  and  developed  by  imparting 
it  through  an  ever  widening  series  of  concentric  cir- 
cles,— Jerusalem,  Judea,  Samaria,  the  world. 

At  first  it  would  have  been  disastrous  to  have  al- 
lowed any  intense  local  or  national  expression  of  or- 
ganic Christianity.  Breadth  had  to  come  before  depth. 
The  controlling  spirit  had  to  be  that  which  made 
for  universal  brotherhood  and  transcended  the  artifi- 
cial fences  of  custom  and  tradition,  race  and  colour. 
S.  Paul's  fight  with  Judaistic  Christianity  was  not 
against  the  right  of  the  chosen  people  to  have  a  form 
of  Christianity  coloured  by  their  past  and  moulded 
along  the  lines  of  their  temperamental  peculiarities. 
It  was  their  claim  to  force  their  interpretation  upon 
the  world  and  to  admit  the  Gentiles  into  the  Church 
only  through  a  Jewish  gate,  that  called  forth  his  de- 
claration of  the  Catholicity  of  Christianity  in  letter 
after  letter.  In  the  ideal  which  the  Roman  Empire 
had  set  for  itself  lay  the  hope  of  Christianity.  Its  prin- 
ciple was  imperial  rather  than  national :  it  stood  for 
political  brotherhood,  as  the  Church  stood  for  ab- 
solute brotherhood.  By  the  evangelization  of  Rome 
Christianity  was  saved  from  becoming  a  conglomera- 
tion of  societies  with  diflfering,  if  not  antagonistic, 
Scriptures  and  polity.  Catholic  Christianity  must  pre- 
cede National  Christianity,  and  in  the  early  centuries 
Rome  was  a  true  guardian  of  the  national  churches, 


THE   VISION  15 

guiding  and  restraining  them  during  the  period  of 
their  minority. 

Had  England  been  left  to  the  mercy  of  the  local 
British  Church  and  not  caught  in  the  grand  sweep  of 
that  which  Roman  Christianity  stood  for,  it  would 
have  fared  ill  with  her.  S.  Augustine's  dealings  with 
the  Welsh  bishops  may  not  have  been  conducted  with 
gentleness,  but  the  times  were  not  ripe  for  indepen- 
dence in  custom,  which  the  sturdy  Britons  demanded, 
and,  if  they  could  have  but  realized  it,  they  needed 
to  be  under  the  tutelage  of  Rome  for  a  season.  In  order 
that  the  local  conception  might  ultimately  live  and 
thrive,  it  was  essential  that  for  the  moment  the  im- 
perial conception  should  swamp  the  local. 

For  a  similar  reason  it  is  good  that  Japan  has  been, 
and  yet  is,  in  her  church  life  a  dependency  of  Western 
Christendom.  With  her  intense  national  feeling  it  is 
conceivable  that  breadth  of  vision  might  be  forfeited 
if  her  leading  strings  were  cut  too  soon  and  she  were 
set  free  to  found  an  autonomous  ecclesiastical  esta- 
blishment. The  principle  is  one  that  can  never  be  set 
aside, — breadth  in  the  Christian  ideal  precedes  depth. 

Ill 

In  one  respect  at  any  rate  the  Church  of  Rome  has 
always  remained  loyal  to  her  early  vision,  and  is  the 
most  aspiring  missionary  church  in  the  world.  She  has 


16  ADVENTURE   FOR  GOD 

never  abated  her  purpose  to  touch  the  uttermost  part 
of  the  earth  with  truth  as  she  understands  it.  The 
traveller  can  hardly  find  a  country  on  the  face  of  the 
globe  where  her  priests  have  not  reared  their  altars. 
We  may  not  ti-ust  her  system,  beHeve  in  her  theo- 
logy, or  admire  her  methods ;  but  she  commands,  and 
we  must  give  her,  our  respect  as  being  true  to  the 
missionary  trust  in  its  widest  reaches.  You  remember 
Macaulay's  glowing  eulogy  of  Rome's  greatness :  ^ 
"The  Papacy  remains,  not  in  decay,  not  a  mere  an- 
tique, but  full  of  life  and  youthful  vigour.  The  Catholic 
Church  is  still  sending  forth  to  the  farthest  ends  of 
the  world  missionaries  as  zealous  as  those  who  landed 
in  Kent  with  Augustine,  and  still  confronting  hostile 
kings  with  the  same  spirit  with  which  she  confronted 
Attila.  The  number  of  her  children  is  greater  than  in 
any  former  age.  Her  acquisitions  in  the  New  World 
have  more  than  compensated  her  for  what  she  has 
lost  in  the  Old.  Her  spiritual  ascendency  extends  over 
the  vast  countries  which  lie  between  the  plains  of  the 
Missouri  and  Cape  Horn, — countries  which,  a  century 
hence,  may  not  improbably  contain  a  population  as 
large  as  that  which  now  inhabits  Europe.  The  mem- 
bers of  her  communion  are  certainly  not  few^er  than 
a  hundred  and  fifty  millions ;  and  it  will  be  difficult  to 
show  that  all  the  other  Christian  sects  united  amount 
^Essays:  Von  Ranke  (1840). 


THE   VISION  17 

to  a  hundred  and  twenty  millions.  Nor  do  we  see  any 
sign  which  indicates  that  the  term  of  her  long  domi- 
nion is  approaching.  She  saw  the  commencements  of 
all  the  governments  and  of  all  the  ecclesiastical  es- 
tablishments that  now  exist  in  the  world;  and  we  feel 
no  assurance  that  she  is  not  destined  to  see  the  end 
of  them  all.  She  was  great  and  respected  before  the 
Saxon  had  set  foot  on  Britain,  before  the  Frank  had 
passed  the  Rhine,  when  Grecian  eloquence  still  flour- 
ished in  Antioch,  when  idols  were  still  worshipped  in 
the  temple  of  Mecca.  And  she  may  still  exist  in  un- 
diminished vigour  when  some  traveller  from  New  Zea- 
land shall,  in  the  midst  of  a  vast  solitude,  take  his 
stand  on  a  broken  arch  of  London  Bridge  to  sketch 
the  ruins  of  S.  Paul's." 

But  all  explanations  of  the  wonderful  vitality  of 
Roman  Catholicism  to  which  this  quotation  points — 
superior  zeal,  close  unity,  highly  developed  organiza- 
tion, splendid  polity — are  incomplete  unless  mission- 
ary spirit  is  included.  This  is  at  once  the  product  and 
the  cause  of  her  abundant  life.  Her  mission  is  to  the 
world,  a  consciousness  that  she  never  relinquishes  for 
a  moment  of  time.  The  church  that  rivals  her  in  this 
feature  of  her  character  cannot  fail  to  rival  her  in 
vitality.  On  the  other  hand,  the  unventuresome  so- 
ciety, be  its  lineage  never  so  high,  its  doctrine  never 
so  pure,  its  morals  never  so  blameless,  is  doomed  to 


18  ADVENTURE   FOR   GOD 

a  weak  pulse  and  a  languishing  existence  in  propor- 
tion as  it  obscures  or  mutilates  the  missionary  vision. 

Protestantism  was  too  engrossed  in  the  development 
of  national  churches  during  its  infancy  to  give  much 
heed  to  larger  interests.  But  wherever  a  Protestant 
organization  has  exliibited  missionary  enterprise  the 
inevitable  result  may  be  traced  in  its  home  life.  Metho- 
dism has  had  increasing  breadth  of  vision  from  its 
beginning,  and  it  took  its  origin  in  missionary  zeal. 
No  one  can  question  its  vitality.  The  reflex  effect  on 
the  Presbyterians  of  Canada  from  the  heroic  faith  of 
Mackay  in  Formosa,  and  on  the  Baptists  in  Amer- 
ica from  the  dauntless  spirit  of  Adoniram  Judson  in 
Burma,  is  a  historic  fact,  further  illustrative  of  the 
vitalizing  influence  far  and  near  of  adventure  for  God. 

The  prospects  of  Japanese  Christianity  form  an  in- 
teresting subject  for  speculation.  In  its  organized  form 
to-day  it  is  at  best  but  a  feeble  thing  relative  to  its 
possibilities;  but  it  gives  indications  of  the  true  spirit. 
Just  as  Jerusalem  sent  forth  its  Apostolic  wealth  for 
the  benefit  of  the  world,  just  as  the  mission  Church  of 
Syrian  Antioch  made  a  gift  to  Asia  Minor  and  to  Rome 
of  S.  Paul,  so  less  than  half  a  century  after  the  plant- 
ing of  Christianity  in  Japan,  one  portion  of  the  Ja- 
panese Church  sends  its  representatives  to  its  new  pos- 
session of  Formosa.  The  poor  and  pathetic  surround- 
ings of  the  mission  in  Tai-ho-ku  rise  before  me.  The 


THE   VISION  19 

small  and  meagrely  furnished  chapel  in  the  narrow 
Chinese  street;  the  eager,  yellow  faces  of  those  gathered 
for  worship;  the  earnest  missionary  and  his  devoted 
wife — all  speak  in  eloquent  terms  of  the  expansive 
power  of  the  Christian  life.  The  Spirit  of  God,  stirring 
in  the  hearts  of  Christians  at  home,  left  them  restless 
until  their  representatives  had  gone  with  their  prayers 
and  small  but  consecrated  gifts  to  carry  the  Church's 
truths  to  the  "beautiful  isle."  Need  I  say  that  a  church 
that  early  makes  adventure  of  faith  like  this  has  a  fu- 
ture— its  vitality  is  insured  to  it. 

The  Anglican  communion  after  the  Reformation 
was  strangely  remiss  in  realizing  its  missionary  respon- 
sibility. At  the  beginning  of  the  eighteenth  century 
"there  were  not  a  score  of  clergymen  of  the  English 
Church  ministering  out  of  this  country  [England]; 
nor  was  nonconformity  more  fully  represented."^  Her 
first  foreign  mission  was  founded  in  1701.  There  was 
not  even  a  bishop  for  English-speaking  people  out- 
side of  England  in  a  British  colony  until  as  late  as 
1787,  when  one  was  consecrated  for  Nova  Scotia,  and 
six  years  later,  another  for  Quebec. 

The  Englishman  is  not  missionary  by  temperament, 
so  that  it  is  all  the  more  to  the  credit  of  his  Church 
that  in  two  centuries  she  has  developed  world-wide 
missions.  But  the  beginnings  were  different  from  those, 
1  Tucker's  English  Church  in  Other  Lands,  p.  19. 


20  ADVENTURE   FOR   GOD 

for  example,  of  Spain.  The  Spanish  colonized  to  Chris- 
tianize, the  English  to  trade.  Bacon's  judgement  is  sadly 
true.  "It  cannot  be  affirmed,  if  one  speak  ingenuously, 
that  it  was  the  propagation  of  the  Christian  faith  that 
was  the  adamant  of  that  discovery,  entry,  and  plan- 
tation, but  gold  and  silver  and  temporal  profit  and 
glory;  so  that  what  was  first  in  God's  providence  was 
but  second  in  man's  appetite  and  intention."  When  at 
length  the  Church  of  England  began  to  move  she  had 
not  her  eyes  on  the  uttermost  part  of  the  earth.  She 
merely  followed  along  the  line  of  commerce  and  colo- 
nization.i  Fear  was  expressed  even  in  this  connection 
lest  trade  should  suffer  from  the  introduction  of  Chris- 
tianity into  India.  These  facts  are  worthy  of  mention 
only  by  way  of  contrast  with  that  zeal,  generosity  and 
faith  which  to-day  places  the  Church  of  England 
among  the  foremost  missionary  churches  of  Christen- 
dom. It  is  worthy  of  note  that  her  vitality  at  home 


1  I  cannot  agree  with  Dr.  Walpole  {Vital  Eelif/ion,  pp.  138  fF.), 
where  he  advocates  on  prudential  grounds  the  restriction  of 
Anglican  missions  to  Anglican  colonies.  (1)  The  plea  of  economy- 
is  insufficient,  for  England  is  well  able  to  afford  abundant  sup- 
port for  all  the  missions  she  has  and  more.  The  trouble  is  not 
that  too  much,  but  too  little  is  expected  of  her.  (2)  The  indige- 
nous rehgion  of  a  country  seems  to  me  to  be  always  an  adequate 
preparation  and  foundation  for  Christianity  in  its  essence,  though 
not,  perhaps,  for  the  Anglican  conception  and  embodiment  of 
the  Church.  Frequently,  however,  the  early  missionaries  can  do 
nothing  more  than  a  sort  of  John  Baptist  work  for  a  generation, 
which  has  been  the  case  in  parts  of  India  under  the  British  flag. 


THE   VISION  21 

has  risen  coterminously  with  her  growing  poHcy  of 
spiritual  expansion. 

Viewed  from  one  angle  missionary  adventure  is  not 
self-sacrifice  for  the  good  of  others,  but  a  phase  of 
self-protection.  Unexpansive  rehgion  is  dying  reli- 
gion. Nor  am  I  doing  an  injustice  to  the  Old  Catholic 
movement  in  Europe  when  I  express  the  fear  that  its 
death  knell  will  shortly  be  sounded  if  it  continues  to 
abide  in  a  self-centred  life.^  Especially  is  it  true  of 
the  Jansenists  in  Holland.  The  Church  there  holds 
itself  aloof  in  a  spirit  of  aristocratic  exclusiveness.  Up 
to  the  present  her  leaders  have  been  so  cautious  re- 
garding their  interpretation  of  CathoHc  lineage  that 
they  have  blinded  their  eyes  to  a  degree  that  makes 
them  unable  to  distinguish  the  true  thing  when  it  is 
placed  before  them.  Estranged  from  Vaticanism  by  a 
historical  break  in  the  past,  they  are  in  danger,  on 
the  one  hand,  of  academic  intolerance  of  the  Papacy 
which  assumes  no  adequate  shape  in  active  life,  and 
reabsorption  into  the  Church  of  Rome,  on  the  other 
hand,  because  of  a  lack  of  sufficient  vitality  to  with- 
stand the  pressure  of  the  Papacy  which  moves  with 
the  weight  and  the  certainty  of  a  glacier  upon  all 
that  lies  near  its  base.  Catholicity  may  require  that  a 
Church  should  touch  with  her  life  the  utmost  bounds 

1  The  Swiss  Church,  under  the  wise  and  energetic  leadership  of 
Bishop  Herzog,  does  not  belong  under  this  heading. 


22  ADVENTURE   FOR   GOD 

of  history,  but  it  is  equally  incumbent  upon  her,  and 
equally  a  mark  of  her  lineage,  that  she  should  touch 
the  uttermost  part  of  the  earth. 

Again,  when  we  look  at  a  Christian  philosophy, 
such,  for  instance,  as  finds  embodiment  in  Unitarian- 
ism,  while  some  of  us  may  not  care  to  deny  its  claim 
to  call  itself  Christian  because  its  adherents  cannot 
bow  the  knee  to  Jesus  Christ  as  being  God  Incarnate, 
we  find  it  hard  to  understand  how  it  cares  to  lay  any 
claim  to  being  Christian,  because  of  its  non-expansive 
character.  A  religion  must  be  either  universal  or  local, 
there  being,  of  course,  varying  degrees  of  local  limi- 
tations, and  Unitarianism  has  declared  itself  to  be 
local,  whereas  Christianity  is  universal.  To  the  ob- 
server modern  Unitarianism  appears  to  be  amiably  tol- 
erant of  anything  that  bears  the  name  of  religion, 
excepting,  perhaps,  historic  Christianity.  Were  it  to 
prevail,  the  result  would  be  the  withdrawal  of  all 
missionary  forces,  and  eventually  the  extinction  of 
itself  and  every  religious  faith  that  it  dominated.  It 
puts  forth  no  missionary  effort,  and  it  is  gradually 
fading  into  an  idea  without  an  embodiment.  Its  non- 
expansive  character  is  fatal  to  its  permanence. 

It  is  necessary  for  us  to  know  all  this,  and  to  dwell 
upon  it,  in  order  that  we  may  realize  how  natural  a 
thing  missionary  work  is,  how  unnatural  its  absence ; 
how  it  is  not  a  straining  on  the  part  of  an  ambitious 


THE  VISION  23 

spiritual  kingdom  to  number  among  its  multitudes 
untouched  nations  for  the  sake  of  magnitude,  but  the 
radiant  development  of  a  life  that  lives  only  so  long 
as  it  expands. 

IV 

The  terminus  ad  quern  of  this  discussion  is  immediate, 
personal  and  practical.  I  am  not  wilUng  to  state  gen- 
eral principles  without  applying  them.  If  I  say  that 
human  life  to  be  effective  should  have  a  broad  vision 
as  well  as  clear,  I  mean  that  you  whom  I  address 
should  consider  this  as  a  necessary  part  of  your  own 
experience ;  if  I  lay  it  down  as  an  axiom  that  an  ab- 
sence of  missionary  venture  is  a  cause  as  well  as  a 
symptom  of  low  vitality  in  a  church,  and  conversely 
that  expansion  is  rewarded  with  renewed  vigour,  I 
mean  that  a  high  degree  of  vitality  in  our  o\mi  com- 
munion hinges  upon  the  earnestness  with  which  you 
gird  yourselves  to  touch  the  uttermost  part  of  the 
earth.  It  is  you  who  must  be  filled  with  a  profound 
conviction  that  the  expansive  power  of  Christianity 
is  inherent  and  not  due  to  a  command ;  in  other  words, 
that  the  Christian  tree  does  not  grow  because  it  is 
bidden,  but  because  it  is  a  tree.  I  have  been  dealing, 
not  with  a  moment  of  history  which  is  dissociated 
from  the  present,  but  with  typical  events  which  illus- 
trate the  principles  that  rule  the  ages. 


24  ADVENTURE   FOR   GOD 

You  who  are  anticipating  a  life  in  the  ministry 
must  have  it  as  your  first  determination,  not  merely 
to  be  sympathetic  with  all  the  actual  work  of  the 
Christian  Church,  but  to  open  your  soul  to  the  mis- 
sionary appeal  of  Christ  as  it  applies  to  the  modern 
world.  Your  interest  in  missions  may  not  be  formal, 
but  must  be  profound  and  permanent.  If  you  are  not 
moved  by  the  impulse  now,  there  is  something  seri- 
ously amiss  in  the  fundamental  principles  which  ac- 
tuate your  life.  On  the  other  hand,  if  the  missionary 
motive  and  missionary  hope  thrill  you  to-day,  you 
must  be  prepared  to  be  thrilled  even  more  to-morrow, 
until  your  enthusiasm  rises  into  a  passion,  and  your 
passion  into  a  reasoned  devotion  that  will  set  no 
limits  to  what  you  are  willing  to  do  for  the  kingdom 
of  God.  Upon  this  depends  your  power  to  minister 
effectively  in  the  little  country  church  where  per- 
chance your  lot  may  be  cast.  A  view  of  the  entire 
landscape  must  precede  the  planting  of  a  single  gar- 
den. If  a  vision  of  the  Church  Catholic  precedes  a 
vision  of  the  parish,  the  parish  will  become  what  it 
should  be,  the  Church  Catholic  in  miniature.  It  is 
one  of  the  disadvantages  of  a  national  church  that 
her  children's  imagination  is  apt  to  be  shut  in  by  a 
close  horizon,  whereas  the  Church  of  Rome  treats  the 
world  as  her  heritage,  and  it  is  the  earliest  lesson 
learned  by  her  votaries. 


THE   VISION  25 

It  has  sometimes  been  urged  that  the  American 
Church,  in  that  she  has  the  ends  of  the  earth  at  her 
door,  owing  to  the  generous  hospitahty  with  which 
she  welcomes  the  sons  of  every  nation  (except  the 
Chinese),  is  not  called  upon  to  make  the  same  ad- 
venture abroad  as  other  churches.  But  assimilation  is 
not  expansion,  whereas  both  are  necessary  to  healthy 
life.i  It  would  be  silly  to  advocate  that  every  national 
church  should  aim  to  send  missionaries  to  every 
heathen  country.  Just  where  each  can  best  make  far- 
off  ventures  of  faith  is  a  matter  usually  decided  by 
indications  that  seldom  seem  to  leave  room  for  doubt, 
and  which  are  horn^  not  of  blood,  nor  of  the  will  of 
the  flesh,  nor  of  the  will  of  man,  hut  of  God. 

Not  every  one  is  called  to  go  abroad,  though  the 
possibility  ought  to  lie  before  every  candidate  for 
holy  orders  as  a  matter  for  serious  consideration. 
The  stronger  and  abler  a  man  is,  the  higher  the  pro- 
bability that  he  may  be  chosen  to  follow  in  the  foot- 
steps of  S.  Paul,  S.  Augustine,  Selwyn,  Hannington 
and  Ingle.  The  best  material  should  go  to  supply  the 
greatest  need,  the  largest  ability  to  the  most  per- 
plexing difficulty.  It  is  but  a  normal  occurrence  when 
a  capable  man,  w^ho  would  be  powerful  in  any  com- 

1  Bacon,  in  his  essay  on  Kingdoms  and  Estates,  points  out  that 
Rome  because  she  was  apt  in  assimilation  acquired  a  genius  for 
colonization.  "All  states  that  are  liberal  of  naturahzation  to- 
ward strangers  are  fit  for  empire." 


26  ADVENTURE   FOR   GOD 

munity  and  would  hold  his  own  in  a  metropolitan 
church,  goes  into  the  missionary  field,  domestic  or 
foreign.  I  wish  it  were  possible,  even  though  all 
clergy  may  not  permanently  surrender  their  lives  to 
missionary  work  in  foreign  lands,  that  no  man  were 
allowed  to  enter  his  more  circumscribed  task  in  pa- 
rochial duties  at  home  without  having  had  the  disci- 
pline and  inspiration  of  a  term  of  service  abroad.  It 
would  do  for  his  Christian  life  what  a  sojourn  in 
Europe  after  the  completion  of  education  does  for 
business  and  professional  men. 

It  is  not,  I  trust,  a  suggestion  of  Quixotic  character 
that  after  ten  years  of  successful  experience  there 
would  be  no  waste  and  no  jar  to  spiritual  interests 
at  home  if  a  pastor,  while  on  the  crest  of  the  wave, 
were  to  resign  his  post  and  turn  his  attention  to  the 
greatest  need  of  the  moment,  wherever  it  might  be. 
Am  I  not  right  in  thinking  that  some  of  our  nomi- 
nal Christians  require  the  wholesome  neglect  which 
S.  Paul  meted  out  to  the  Jews  after  he  had  laboured 
with  them  in  vain  ?  Far  be  it  from  my  mind  to  speak 
slightingly  of  that  great  body  of  devout  men  and 
women  who  make  some  of  the  parishes  of  our  larger 
cities  strongholds  of  faith  and  an  inspiration  to  all 
who  are  familiar  with  their  life  and  working.  But  it 
is  to  the  conventional  Christians  that  I  refer,  who  do 
not  know  the  value  of  pastoral  oversight  and  the  in- 


THE   VISION  n 

spiration  of  a  high  quahty  of  prophetic  utterance, 
because  they  have  never  been  deprived  of  it.  The 
gifts  that  we  can  most  readily  lay  our  hands  upon 
are  the  gifts  that  we  are  most  inclined  to  undervalue. 
It  is  expedient  for  you  that  I  go  away. 

The  lot  of  the  missionary  is  cast  in  a  fair  ground 
and  he  has  a  goodly  heritage.  He  asks  no  commisera- 
tion or  sentimental  applause  when  he  goes  on  his  ad- 
venture. I  have  known  those  who,  having  felt  them- 
selves called  to  distant  labours,  have  been  compelled 
by  merciless  obligations  to  abandon  their  chosen  path, 
— sometimes  because  of  ill  health,  sometimes  because 
of  less  painful  but  quite  as  imperative  claims.  When 
the  blow  came  it  was  a  crushing  one.  The  satisfaction 
with  their  lot  was  such  that  even  the  going  to  a  plea- 
sant spot  in  a  pleasant  land  was  no  compensation  for 
their  inability  to  continue  to  witness  for  Christ  in  a 
far-off  field.  It  is  obvious  that  there  is  no  special  hero- 
ism in  going  on  the  Apostolic  errand,  and  leaving 
home  and  kindred.  It  is  a  joy,  and  the  compensation 
far  exceeds  the  sacrifice.  It  grandly  illustrates  the  fact 
that  in  its  final  form  the  Christian  life  is  not  a  life  of 
renunciation,  but  a  life  of  consecration,  —  a  life  that 
means  giving  up  only  in  so  far  as  giving  up  is  giving 
upward, — giving  upward  of  the  whole  self,  its  gifts, 
its  present  and  its  future.  It  is  the  life  of  courageous 
freedom,  the  life  of  security  in  peril,  the  life  of  abun- 


28  ADVENTURE   FOR   GOD 

dance  in  the  midst  of  want,  the  life  of  peace  in  the 
midst  of  care,  the  life  of  large  fellowship  in  the  heart's 
loneliness.  To  the  missionary  who  has  gone  where 
Christ  has  bidden  the  earth  is  a  very  small  sphere.  It 
is  no  longer  a  marvel  to  him  that  God  can  hold  it  in 
the  hollow  of  His  hand.  Let  none  dare  pity  the  mis- 
sionary; for  that  man  stands  exultant,  with  the  em- 
blem of  his  vocation  bound  to  his  brow  as  a  monarch 
wears  a  diadem. 

Though  it  is  possible  that  any  one  may  be  called  to 
go,  it  is  certain  that  all  are  called  to  see.  Many  people 
to-day  are  dying  morally  and  spiritually  because  their 
sole  conception  of  Christianity  is  that  miserable  self- 
saving  creed  which  has  made  Christianity  sometimes 
an  object  of  contempt  in  the  minds  of  non-Christians 
who  have  a  broad  vision  of  life  and  service.  Man,  by 
virtue  of  his  manhood,  needs  the  most  exalted  ideals, 
the  most  enterprising  tasks,  the  most  extended  vision. 
One  cause  of  low  spiritual  vitality  is  not  that  there 
is  a  failure  on  the  part  of  pastors  to  build  up  the 
people  committed  to  their  charge  in  formal  theology 
or  in  practical  righteousness,  but  that  the  whole  ideal 
of  Christian  revelation  and  adventure  is  not  presented 
by  men  who  themselves  have  been  caught  in  the  arms 
of  the  vision.  The  cry  for  funds,  the  machinery  to  se- 
cure them,  are  not  only  necessary  but  important;  but 
I  wish  it  were  possible,  for  a  year  or  so,  to  say  not  so 


THE   VISION  29 

much  as  a  word  about  the  need  of  money,  and  to  spend 
the  entire  time  in  giving  men  the  privilege  of  know- 
ing the  breadth  of  Christian  work,  and  in  teaching 
them  how  each  separate  life  in  catching  the  Apostolic 
missionary  ideal  will  attain  that  joy  and  power  which 
is  our  Christian  heritage.  Arguing  from  duty  or  mere 
authority  is  always  precarious,  especially  in  our  day 
when  the  search  for  truth  is  probably  more  spiritual 
and  less  dependent  on  bare  organization  than  ever 
before  in  Christian  history.  One  always  has  to  guard 
his  statements,  and  I  do  not  wish  to  be  understood  as 
in  any  sense  depreciating  the  grandeur  of  duty.  Illu- 
mination and  inspiration  sometimes  best  come  in  the 
process  of  fulfilling  an  obligation  couched  in  terms  of 
categorical  imperative. 

Were  I  to  follow  my  impulses,  so  far  as  practical 
missionary  work  is  concerned,  I  would  turn  the  atten- 
tion of  the  people  at  home  to  the  least  successful  mis- 
sions, merely  to  assert  my  faith  in  the  certainty  of 
their  ultimate  success.  "Nothing  succeeds  like  suc- 
cess," and  in  an  age  in  which  there  is  so  much  of  a 
passion  for  statistical  results,  spiritual  interests  are 
frequently  injured  by  a  misapplication  of  this  fine 
proverb  that  means,  to  Mm  that  hath  shall  it  he  given. 
In  the  illumination  and  the  glad  assurance  of  our 
ideal,  we  need  to  turn  our  most  potent  forces  on  the 
most  manifest  weakness  visible.  If  it  be  argued  against 


30  ADVENTURE    FOR   GOD 

the  placing  of  this  ideal  insistently  before  men  that 
some  natures  are  incapable  of  broad  vision,  I  indig- 
nantly repudiate  it  as  an  insult  to  a  humanity  that 
has  been  caught  in  the  tide  of  Christ's  redeeming 
power.  A  broad  and  exalted  conception  of  duty  never 
yet  injured  a  man,  never  narrowed  his  immediate 
responsibilities.  Spiritual  obligations  never  broke  a 
character,  and  without  them  no  character  has  ever 
been  made. 

I  speak  about  adventure  for  God  in  the  terms  I  do 
with  the  consciousness  that  the  signs  of  the  times 
are  full  of  hope.  It  is  unique  and  inspiriting  that 
in  the  heat  of  a  political  campaign  the  President  of 
this  Republic  should  call  men  to  confer  with  him  re- 
garding a  missionary  opportunity  in  a  non-Christian 
land  which  it  seemed  to  him  should  be  seized.  This 
was  irrespective  of  any  sectional  or  denominational 
thought,  and  showed  in  its  features  that  divine  light 
which  shines  forth  from  every  life  that  has  the  true 
Apostolic  conception  of  Christ's  commission. 

When  the  highest  post  of  honour  in  a  leading  school 
for  girls  is  the  presidency  of  the  missionary  society, 
and  when  the  head  master  of  a  great  school  for  boys 
publicly  proclaims  that  he  would  rather  see  one  of 
his  pupils  a  foreign  missionary  than  in  the  Presi- 
dential chair,  surely  the  vision  of  adventure  for  God 
is  a  living  force  in  our  midst! 


LECTURE   II 

THE  APPEAL 

Then  Sir  Galahad  came  unto  a  mountain,  where  he  found 
afi  old  chapel,  and  found  there  nobody,  for  all  was  desolate, 
and  there  he  kneeled  tofore  the  altar,  and  besought  God  of 
wholesome  counsel.  So,  as  he  prayed,  he  heard  a  voice  that 
said.  Go  thou  now,  thou  adventurous  knight,  to  the  Castle  of 
the  Maidens,  and  there  do  thou  away  the  wicked  customs. 

IN  insisting  that  we  must  bathe  ourselves  in  the 
Apostolic  vision  without  narrowing  its  horizon  or 
abating  its  thoroughness,  I  am  not  plunging  into 
reckless  and  idealistic  altruism,  but  am  advocating 
the  preservation  and  promotion  of  home  interests. 
In  our  enthusiasm  we  have  not  wandered  away  from 
the  reasonableness  of  the  second  commandment  of 
love  which  restricts  the  degree  of  love  we  can  give  to 
others.  We  are  hindered  from  loving  others  better 
than  ourselves,  and  so  losing  our  hold  on  the  pro- 
cesses of  self-improvement,  by  being  told  that  our 
love  for  our  neighbour  must  have  for  its  index  and 
measure  the  love  of  self,  —  thou  shalt  love  thy  neigh- 
hour  as  thyself. 

An  excess  of  love  for  others  is  more  often  exhibited 
in  the  destructive  forces  of  indulgence — as,  for  exam- 
ple, of  parents  for  children — than  in  reckless  forms 
of  self-sacrifice.  It  is  a  question  in  my  mind  whether 
indulgence  is  after  all  an   illustration  of  excess  of 


32  ADVENTURE   FOR   GOD 

altruism  and  not  rather  a  practical  exposition  of  the 
fact  that  we  not  only  may  but  must  love  our  neigh- 
bour as  ourselves — in  manner  at  least.  Indulgent  love 
is  most  often  if  not  always  the  love  of  the  self-in- 
dulgent and  undisciplined,  and  it  is  as  destructive  of 
others  as  of  self  He  who  is  indifferent  to  the  quality 
of  his  own  character  is  equally  indifferent  to  that  of 
his  neighbour.  The  well-fed  self-pleaser  is  prone  to 
think  of  charity  as  consisting  of  gifts  of  food.  On 
the  other  hand,  the  man  who  has  a  firm  hold  on 
Christian  privilege  is  moved  to  give  to  the  limit,  in 
depth  and  breadth,  of  that  which  he  possesses.  In 
short,  he  who  lives  loves  because  he  lives.  That  which 
remains  to  be  determined  is  the  direction,  the  quality 
and  the  measure  of  love.  The  Christian  ideally  loves 
as  high  as  God  and  as  wddely  as  the  boundaries  of 
humanity. 

Nor  is  insistence  on  the  need  of  inner  vision  an 
over-valuation  of  subjectivity.  Until  recently  environ- 
ment w^as  accused  of  being  responsible  for  horrible 
crimes.  The  charge  is  wholly  true  if  under  the  word 
environment  are  grouped  subjective  and  inner  forces, 
but  only  partially  true  if  confined  to  physical  sur- 
roundings and  the  evil  influences  of  heredity.  A  bi- 
ologist who,  amid  all  the  advantages  society  can 
contribute  toward  his  welfare  and  efficiency,  can  see 
no  farther  than  the  tail  of  a  bacillus  is  a  prisoner  of 


THE   APPEAL  33 

theory.  Whereas  the  laundry -girl  who  finds  a  joy 
"  in  helping  people  to  be  clean,"  and  who  in  imagina- 
tion fills  with  singing  birds  and  the  fragrance  of 
spring  the  mean  alleys  that  conduct  her  to  her  daily 
toil,  though  she  die  a  death  induced  by  undue  hard- 
ship, will  go  singing  her  way  into  the  hearts  of  men 
and  lending  vitality  to  others  when  the  violets  are 
growing  over  her  ashes. ^ 

A  broad  vision,  together  with  an  armful  of  tasks,  is 
the  best  solvent  for  doubts.  Honest  thinking  is  ne- 
cessary, but  logic  never  has  been,  and  never  will  be,  the 
sole  guardian  of  truth.  Logic  gives  a  conviction  that 
we  can  carry,  but  not  one  that  will  carry  us.  When, 
however,  we  are  caught  in  the  vision  of  the  Church 
in  her  ideal  completeness,  and  in  her  daring  venture- 
someness  for  God,  the  corporate  faith  becomes  indivi- 
dual faith,  and  bears  us  in  its  arms  with  the  gentle- 
ness and  firmness  of  a  mother  clasping  her  babe. 

i"'My  beautiful  places'  —  it  was  Katie,  speaking  dreamily — 
'  are  all  in  me  mind.  My  mother,  she  talks  to  me  of  Ireland,  of 
the  green  hills  of  St.  Columbkill  she  talks,  of  the  rings  of  the 
Good  People.  I  've  never  seen  them,  but  I  see  them  in  me  mind, 
and  many  other  things.  When  I  walk  down  Durham  Street  every 
morning  to  the  laundry,  I  pretend  the  train-yards  are  hedge- 
rows, with  the  May  on  them,  like  she  tells,  and  the  sounds  of 
the  carts  is  brooks  a-running,  and  the  cars  is  wind  in  the  trees, 
and  I  have  a  real  pleasant  walk.' "  Vida  D.  Scudder,  A  Listener 
in  BaheU  p.  228. 

There  is  a  woman  of  Gospel  story  whose  imaginative  action 
gave  her  immortahty  {S.  Matt,  xxvi,  6  ff.). 


34  ADVENTURE   FOR   GOD 

Before  going  on  to  consider  the  next  division  of 
our  subject  I  wish  to  guard  myself  from  the  implica- 
tion that  I  am  instituting  a  comparison  between  the 
commonplace  and  the  romantic, — work  at  home  and 
work  abroad,  —  to  the  disadvantage  of  the  former.  A 
modern  poem^  speaks  my  mind  regarding  true  great- 
ness. Heroes  are 

Not  always,  nor  alone,  the  lives  that  search 
Hon)  they  may  snatch  a  glory  out  of  heaven 
Or  add  a  height  to  Babel ;  oftener  they 
That  in  the  still  fulfilment  of  each  days 
Pacific  order  hold  great  deeds  in  leash, 
That  in  the  sober  sheath  of  tranquil  tasks 
Hide  the  attempered  blade  of  high  emprise. 

Their  vision  transfigures  their  sombre  career  and  makes 
it  a  glory.  The  pathos  of  such  a  life  as  that  of  Charles 
Lamb  is  lost  in  its  highly  tempered  splendour.  Deny- 
ing satisfaction  to  the  adventurous  impatience  of 
youth  to  walk  abroad  with  unfettered  tread  and  to 
give  free  play  to  such  holy  love  as  might  encompass 
him,  he  sits  down  in  the  gloom  of  his  half,  and  some- 
times wholly,  mad  sister  to  brighten  it,  and  through 
it  the  shadows  of  a  world,  with  humour  incomparable. 
The  missionary  who  goes  to  darkest  Africa  is  supe- 
rior in  no  wise  to  the  missionary  who  abides  at  home, 

1 A  To7-chbearer,  by  Edith  Wharton. 


THE  APPEAL  85 

provided  both  have  the  Church's  vision.  "  Not  once . . . 
have  I  thought  the  foreign  claims  superior  to  the 
home,  or  honoured  the  foreign  missionary  above  his 
equally  heroic  and  equally  faithful  brother  who  toils 
in  the  obscurity  of  a  broken-down  village.  ...  It  is 
not  for  me  —  it  is  not  for  any  foreign  missionary  — 
to  look  loftily  on  the  ministry  at  home,  or  think  of 
them  as  less  loyal,  unselfish,  and  true.  We  are  all 
missionaries,  the  sent  ones  of  the  King;  and  not  our 
fields,  but  our  faithfulness,  matters."  ^  But  the  Church 
must  have  both  the  one  and  the  other  before  she  can 
go  swinging  through  time  like  the  triumphant  force 
she  was  ordained  to  be  by  her  Leader.  We  need  to 
realize  the  largeness  of  a  small  work  as  well  as  the 
smallness  of  a  great  work,  in  order  that  on  the  one 
hand  we  may  do  least  things  grandly,  and  on  the 
other,  grand  things  humbly. 

The  promise  to  Christ^  that  the  heathen  were  to  be 
for  His  inheritance,  and  the  utmost  parts  of  the  earth 
for  His  possession,  through  Him  becomes  a  promise 
to  His  followers  who  learn  the  art  of  seeing  far  —  to 
the  most  obscure  pastor  and  to  the  humblest  com- 
municant. 

I 

Visions  from  on  high  require  to  be  supplemented  by 
appeals  from  beneath.  It  is  at  the  meeting  point  of 
^From  Far  Formosa,  pp.  16,  17.  ^Psalms  ii,  8. 


36  ADVENTURE   FOR   GOD 

the  two  that  purpose  runs  into  achievement,  the  ideal 
into  the  actual  and  practical. 

When  the  Apostles  started  out,  like  Abraham  they 
had  nothing  but  naked  faith  to  guide  them.  Un- 
wonted impulses  moved  them,  but  they  were  as  chil- 
dren learning  to  walk.  New  life  stirred  in  them,  but 
it  was  too  abundant  for  their  surroundings,  and  they 
did  not  know  how  best  to  use  it.  They  were  cramped 
by  their  Jewish  training,  which  had  taught  them  to 
despise  the  nations  of  the  world,  or  at  best  to  toler- 
ate them.  They  had  yet  to  learn  that  God  hath  viade 
of  one  hlood  all  nations  of  men  for  to  dwell  on  all  the 
face  of  the  earth.  Possibly  the  missionary  commission 
was  for  the  moment  lost  or  obscured  in  the  wealth  of 
knowledge  which  in  a  brief  space  had  become  theirs. 
By  degrees  the  enduring  incidents  of  the  evangelical 
record  sorted  themselves  out,  until  in  the  narrative- 
preaching  of  the  Apostles  it  assumed  its  true  place, 
so  that  finally  in  the  written  page  it  was  enthroned 
at  the  summit  of  each  synoptic  story,^  bursting  into 
a  shower  of  promise  on  the  threshold  of  the  Church's 
annals.^  They  began  to  understand  what  at  first  per- 
haps was  a  dark  saying  only  when  appeals  came  from 
men  for  such  aid  as  the  Christian  body  knew  it  was 
competent  to  supply.  At  the  beginning   they  were 

1<S.  Matt,  xxviii,  18  ff . ;  S.  Mark  xvi,  1.5;  .9.  Luke  xxiv,  48,  49. 
^ActsL  8. 


THE   APPEAL  37 

hampered  by  the  ingrained  conviction  that  the  Gen- 
tile was  rehgiously  a  lower  order  of  being  than  the 
Jew.  That  God  did  not  look  on  the  Gentile  with  full 
favour  was  the  Jewish  way  of  expressing  the  idea  that 
the  Gentile  lacked  capacity  for  truth  in  its  highest 
form.  To  go  and  preach  the  Gospel  among  the  na- 
tions would  seem  like  undertaking  to  teach  a  blind 
person  to  paint.  It  was  a  lesson  that  had  to  be  learned 
by  degrees,  that  the  "soul  is  naturally  Christian," 
that  there  can  he  neither  Jew  nor  Greek,  there  can  be 
neither  bond  nor  free,  there  can  be  no  male  andjemale: 
for  that  all  are  one  man  in  Christ  Jesus} 

They  were  quite  right  to  proceed  cautiously  until 
they  arrived  at  this  conviction.  We  are  not  precipi- 
tately to  conclude  that  because  we  possess  and  enjoy 
a  good  thing  it  is  necessarily  to  be  forced  upon  others 
without  invitation  or  some  sign  on  their  part.  The 
reverse  side  of  God's  will  as  expressed  within  is  God's 
will  as  expressed  without.  Christ's  command  to  go  to 
the  nations  required  a  sign  from  them  to  confirm  it. 
Obvious  need  is  always  both  an  indication  of  an  un- 
satisfied appetite  and  an  unused  or  partially  used  ca- 
pacity. To  a  nature  that  is  at  once  sympathetic  and 
practical  the  recognition  of  a  need  is  a  challenge  to 
minister  to  it,  a  request  for  practical  compassion.  It 
was  one  of  the  finest  features  of  the  life  of  Jesus  that 
1  Gal.  iii,  28. 


38  ADVENTURE   FOR   GOD 

in  delicate  ways  He  was  governed  by  this  principle. 
Seeing  His  friends  "distressed  in  rowing"  during  a 
bit  of  rough  weather,  He  moved  to  their  relief.^  The 
tears  of  a  grieving  and  bereft  woman  were  a  strong 
enough  appeal  to  bring  forth  His  first  self-manifes- 
tation after  His  resurrection.  A  mother's  love  sees  in 
her  crying  babe  all  the  invitation  that  is  necessary  to 
draw  her  to  its  side. 

The  greatest  reformers  have  not  undertaken  their 
task  by  commandment,  or  by  a  request  that  every  one 
is  competent  to  read.  In  most  instances  they  have  had 
to  do  a  work  of  interpretation.  The  suffering  world 
speaks  in  a  language  that  the  sympathetic  alone  can 
understand,  and  then  only  after  hard  study.  Where 
other  people  hear  a  cry  of  distress  which  says,  "I  am 
in  need,"  strong  compassion  hears  a  voice  which  begs 
for  aid:  "It  is  you  who  can  best  minister  to  me.  Your 
wisdom  and  strength  can  succour  me."  Often  it  is  the 
true  beginning  of  life  when  aching  pity  is  roused  to 
the  consciousness  that  it  can  be  transformed  into  sav- 
ing activity.  John  Howard  was  a  valetudinarian  and 
neurotic,  a  burden  to  himself  and  his  friends,  until 
his  duties  as  sheriff  put  him  where  he  could  interpret 
the  cry  of  the  prisoner  as  meaning  that  he  was  or- 
dained of  God  to  bring  humaneness  into  the  convict 
and  criminal  life  of  Europe.  William  Wilberforce,  in 
1 S.  Mark  vi,  48. 


THE   APPEAL  S9 

the  plaintive  voices  that  called  across  the  seas  from  his 
family  estates,  distinguished  that  which  his  father  had 
missed,  and  became  the  emancipator  of  the  enslaved 
blacks  of  Great  Britain.  Our  own  brave  Dorothea  Dix 
bade  fair  to  slip  in  early  life  into  a  consumptive's 
grave,  until  she  looked  beneath  the  surface  of  the 
lives  of  the  insane,  and  perceived  her  vocation  written 
in  unmistakable  terms.  Their  piteousness  was  the  op- 
portunity her  compassionate  nature  was  awaiting  be- 
fore it  could  ripen  into  that  indefatigable  beneficence 
which  rested  a  loving  hand  on  the  mental  sufferers 
of  two  continents.  Vision  and  appeal  met  together, 
compassion  and  distress  kissed  one  another,  and  forth- 
with confusion  felt  the  compelling  hand  of  order  laid 
upon  its  heaving  bosom. 

II 

The  Apostles  gradually  grew  into  the  consciousness 
of  the  practical  value  of  their  vision.  Though  occupied 
in  looking  upward,  they  did  not  forget  to  keep  an  ear 
to  the  ground  for  the  voice  of  God  speaking  through 
humanity.  They  signalized  the  beginning  of  their 
career  by  being  practical.  If  the  diaconate  originated 
in  an  eleemosynary  dispute,  for  that  reason  it  was 
none  the  less,  but  in  my  judgement  all  the  more,  di- 
vine. And  the  same  may  be  said  of  the  establishment  of 
episcopacy  rising  out  of  a  simple  need  in  the  develop- 


40  ADVENTURE   FOR   GOD 

ment  of  organization.  The  orderly  processes  by  which 
God  reaches  His  purposes  are  a  witness  to  His  personal 
superintendence  in  human  affairs.  Mysteriousness  is  an 
aid  to  belief  in  the  lower  stages  of  human  ev  olution  ; 
in  the  higher,  intelligibleness  is  sought  for  and  ex- 
pected because  we  men  of  reason  are  made  in  the 
image  of  God  and  endowed  with  understanding  that 
is  different  from  God's  not  in  quality,  but  only  in 
degree.  Consequently  in  some  of  the  strange  things 
which  formerly  were  set  aside  as  being  insoluble 
puzzles  we  are  beginning  to  discern  a  system  and 
order,  a  history  of  action  and  reaction,  which  go  to 
enhance  and  not  detract  from  the  beauty  of  each 
incident.  An  explicable  miracle  is  just  as  holy,  just 
as  much  the  work  of  God,  as  an  inexplicable  one.  In 
essence  both  are  alike. 

Among  the  earliest  indications  of  broad  progress 
occurs  the  incident  of  Philip  and  the  eunuch.^  The 
narrative  is  replete  with  grace  and  poetry.  Were  it 
translated  into  the  language  of  modern  psychists  it 
would  be  illuminated  by  the  lightning  of  telepathy 
striking  across  space  after  the  manner  of  wireless 
telegraphy.  Nor  do  I  see  any  objection  to  such  an 
explanation  provided  it  does  not  stop  at  that  and 
preclude  thoughts  that  are  deeper,  though  not  less 
intelligible. 
1  Acts  viii. 


THE   APPEAL  41 

The  compassionate  soul  of  Philip,  equipped  for 
work,  sensitive  in  high  degree  to  the  least  claim  upon 
him,  was  in  a  condition  to  feel,  even  at  a  distance, 
the  spiritual  upheaval  that  w  as  going  on  in  the  mind 
of  the  perplexed  eunuch ;  just  as  the  seismograph  of 
a  Philippine  observatory  records  promptly  an  earth- 
quake in  distant  India.  The  treasurer  of  Candace, 
with  splendid  courage  but  with  mystified  mind,  feel- 
ing his  way  into  the  rare  atmosphere  of  Heaven,  with 
naught  but  an  uninterpreted  Scripture  in  his  hand, 
touched  the  distant  evangelist,  who  was  led  by  the 
power  of  the  Spirit  into  his  presence.  Need  was  call- 
ing to  efficiency,  and  the  unifying  Spirit  of  God  fitted 
each  to  the  other.  In  a  book  of  sweet  S'uig-Sofig 
rhymes  by  Christina  Rossetti  is  the  picture  of  a  nurse 
offering  over  a  grave  an  infant  to  a  mourning  mother 
just  bereft  of  her  little  one.  Underneath  is  the  verse: 

Motherless  hahy  and  hahyless  mother — 
Bring  them  together  to  love  one  another, — 

a  parable  teaching  how  God  draws  deep  to  deep. 
Just  as  the  poetess  in  intention  and  imaginative  effort 
brings  together  the  needy  and  the  succourer,  so  does 
God  by  an  angel — or  by  telepathy,  if  you  please  :  it 
is  of  no  importance — intimate  to  the  strong  man 
where  his  strength  may  be  most  effectively  used.  If 
proficient  sympathy  has  a  keen  ear,  unconquered  woe 


42  ADVENTURE   FOR   GOD 

has  a  loud  wail.  The  life-saving  corps  on  the  shore  is 
always  on  the  alert  for  signals  of  distress  from  the 
storm-swept  sea,  and  understands  the  rockets  flung 
skyward  by  perishing  mariners.  The  Man  of  Sorrows, 
living  in  the  sorrowers  of  to-day,  calls  to  the  Man  of 
Practical  Compassion,  living  in  the  faithful  servant  of 
His  Church.  Nor  does  He  call  in  vain.  Space  does  not 
prevent  spiritual  communication  through  a  language 
other  than  that  of  the  spoken  word. 

Again,  the  vision  of  S.  Peter  w^as  the  necessary 
complement  of  the  vision  of  Cornelius.^  Separated  by 
the  distance  between  Joppa  and  Caesarea,  they  were 
energized  by  the  same  Spirit,  so  that  soul  touched 
soul,  and  each  gave  knowledge  to  the  other  before 
they  met  in  the  flesh.  Just  as  there  was  a  seeking  for 
Christ  by  the  Oriental  sages,  as  well  as  a  seeking  for 
the  sages  by  Christ,  so  there  was  a  seeking  for  the 
Church  by  the  Gentiles  before  there  was  a  seeking 
for  the  Gentiles  by  the  Church. 

Perhaps  the  clearest  instance  of  this  principle  oc- 
curs in  the  history  of  S.  Paul.  ^  The  Apostle  was  mak- 
ing his  way  toward  Bithynia,  but  the  Spirit  of  Jesus 
suffered  him  not.  A  wail  of  distress  floated  across 
the  Hellespont.  It  was  a  very  commonplace  dream, 
that  of  the  man  of  Macedonia;  it  might  be  traced 
to  the  influence  on  S.  Paul's  sleeping  thoughts  of 
^Actsx.  ^  Acts  xvi. 


THE   APPEAL  43 

a  conversation  about  the  needs  of  Philippi  held 
during  the  day.  But  when  he  had  seen  the  vision^ 
straighticay  we  sought  to  go  forth  into  Macedonia,  con- 
cluding that  God  had  called  us  for  to  preach  the  gos- 
pel unto  them}  Beneath  the  commonplace  features 
of  the  incident,  the  Apostle's  sensitive  nature  dis- 
cerned God's  invitation  issuing  through  the  dream 
lips  of  a  Macedonian. 

So  much  for  the  illustrative  instances  from  the 
Bible,  which  is  the  book  of  universal  experience  and 
finds  the  confirmation  of  its  veracity  in  ordinary  his- 
tory, to  which  we  shall  now  give  our  attention.  At 
any  moment  of  the  Church's  life  when  a  strong  mis- 
sionary impulse  has  been  manifested,  it  has  been 
due  to  the  fact,  not  that  some  spiritual  genius  has 
been  stirred  by  a  mere  subjective  vision  and  tried  to 
share  his  experience  with  others,  but  that  the  emo- 
tions and  cravings  of  people  groping  after  God  have 
made  themselves  felt  in  the  tender  places  in  the 
Church's  heart.  The  story  of  Gregory  the  Great  and 
the  fair-haired  Angles,  which  eventuated  in  the  mis- 
sion of  Augustine,  is  but  the  story  of  S.  Paul  and  the 
Macedonians  in  new  setting. 

In  the  latter  part  of  the  eighteenth  century  Great 
Britain's  interest  in  India  was  purely  commercial. 
Protestantism  was  hardly  represented  there,  what 
"^Acts  xvi,  10. 


44  ADVENTURE   FOR   GOD 

there  was  being  of  Danish  origin,  though  the  Roman 
CathoHcs  had  long  been  doing  good  work.  When  the 
Baptist  Carey  declared  his  conviction  that  India  was 
stretching  out  its  hands  for  aid,  he  met  with  nothing 
but  discouragement,  not  the  least  being,  that  from 
among  his  own  co-religionists  came  the  remark  that 
if  God  wished  to  convert  India  He  could  do  it  with- 
out their  aid.  Though  Carey  had  passed  middle  life 
he  had  not  forfeited  the  privilege  of  the  pure  in  heart 
to  see  visions.  His  listening  ear,  too,  had  caught  the 
sound  of  low  pleading  from  the  purlieus  of  the 
Zenana  and  of  loud  protestation  against  the  hideous- 
ness  of  Suttee.  At  first  he  alone  of  his  fellows  saw  and 
heard.  It  was  the  case  of  Philip  and  the  eunuch  over 
again,  and  the  Spirit  of  the  Lord  led  the  evangelist 
toward  the  south  unto  the  voay  that  goeth  down  from 
England  to  India. 

Coming  up  higher  still  into  our  own  times,  the  ex- 
perience of  Mackay  of  Formosa  reads  like  a  story  of 
the  days  of  S.  Peter  and  S.  Paul.  Mackay  had  always 
had  the  missionary  vision  and  purpose.  It  was  his 
whole  life.  He  awaited  a  definite  beckoning  from 
God  which  would  declare  the  place  prepared  in  the 
divine  counsels  for  his  labours.  For  a  long  time  he 
waited  in  uncertainty,  but  at  length  his  Church  bade 
him  gird  himself  for  the  journey  to  China.  And 
when  he  had  come  over  against  Quang  Tung  he  as- 


THE   APPEAL  45 

sayed  to  go  into  the  Swatow  district;  and  the  Spirit 
of  Jesus  suffered  him  not.  "There  were  strong  induce- 
ments presented  in  favour  of  settling  in  the  Swatow 
district,  but  I  resolved  first  to  see  Formosa.  .  .  . 
I  had  no  plans,  but  invisible  cords  were  drawing  me 
to  the  'Beautiful  Isle.'"  A  few  weeks  later  on,  "there 
came  to  me  a  calm,  clear,  prophetic  assurance  that 
here  would  be  my  home,  and  Something  said  to  me, 
'This  is  the  land.'"  1 

It  would  be  easy  to  multiply  illustrations,  but  one 
more  must  suffice.  A  few  years  ago  a  young  clergy- 
man of  the  Church  of  England,  whose  life  was  full  of 
practical  sympathy  with  those  servants  of  commerce 
who  man  the  merchant  marine,  heard  the  moan  of 
the  exploited  and  abused  sailor  in  a  distant  American 
city.  Equipped  with  nothing  but  a  vision  and  an  ap- 
peal he  went,  and  though  San  Francisco  is  not  as  yet 
such  a  port  as  one  expects  to  enter  through  a  Golden 
Gate,  the  comparison  between  what  it  is  and  what  it 
was  tells  afresh  the  story  of  the  certain  success  of  ad- 
venture for  God.^ 

1  From  Far  Formosa. 

2  A  double  call  is  required  to  determine  the  missionary  vocation, 
—  that  which  comes  from  within,  and  that  which  comes  from 
the  Church.  This  has  been  so  from  earUest  times.  A  man  does 
not  become  a  priest  because  he  feels  an  inward  call.  The  cor- 
porate body  has  to  determine  whether  or  not  the  call  is  from 
God.  It  is  not  less  the  case  in  connection  with  missionary  enter- 
prise.   The  final  decision  as  to  quahfications  rests   with  the 


46  ADVENTURE   FOR   GOD 

III 

The  appeal  to  the  missionary  expresses  itself  in  a  two- 
fold way :  in  intuitive  religiousness,  and  in  readiness 
to  hear.  In  the  case  of  both  the  eunuch  and  CorneHus 
there  was  natural  devoutness  and  reaching  after  God, 
as  well  as  attentiveness  to  what  their  preceptors  had 
to  say  when  they  were  sent.  The  term  Natural  Reli- 
gion, though  it  has  a  special  meaning,  implies  that 
it  is  natural  to  all  men  to  be  religious,  that  capacity 
for  religion  is  inherent  in  human  life.  Not  that  in 
some  cases  there  is  not  such  ignorance,  obtuseness, 
perversion,  as  to  give  the  appearance  of  an  absence  of 
the  religious  faculty.  There  are  instances,  as  in  the 
case  of  cataract,  where  the  power  of  vision  is  veiled 
and  calls  for  something  akin  to  surgery  before  the 
faculty  is  in  a  position  to  be  used.  Even  among  the 
most  refined  characters  and  developed  intellects  a 
common  endowment  of  manhood  can  be  so  abused  or 
neglected  as  to  cease  to  execute  its  function  :  as  with 
Dean  Stanley,  who  buried  his  aesthetic  sense  beneath 
historicity  in  such  a  way  that  in  later  life  the  grand- 
est scenery  suggested  historic  associations,  or  nothing ; 

Church.  It  should  be  noted  in  such  cases  as  those  quoted  above 
that  the  fitness  for  the  work  had  long  since  been  decided  upon  by 
authoritative  voices ;  it  was  merely  the  sphere  in  which  the  voca- 
tion was  to  be  pursued  that  required  to  be  determined.  The 
Church  has  learned  by  experience  that  she  cannot  afford  to 
employ  in  her  missionary  ventures  persons  without  training. 


THE   APPEAL  47 

or  as  with  Darwin,  whose  capacity  for  worship  died, 
by  his  own  confession,  of  malnutrition.  Whatever 
interest  there  may  be  in  the  study  of  those  abnor- 
raahties  in  which  the  rehgious  sense  is  dead  or  gone 
to  decay,  the  fact  remains  that  there  is  no  race,  no 
nation,  no  tribe,  in  which  at  least  the  seed  of  reli- 
giousness does  not  live. 

Even  Herbert  Spencer  points  out  the  universality 
of  the  religious  capacity,  while  denying  that  it  affords 
any  presumptive  evidence  in  favour  of  the  divine  con- 
tent of  religion.  "Religious  ideas  of  one  kind  or 
other  are  almost  universal.  Admitting  that  in  many 
places  there  are  tribes  who  have  no  theory  of  creation, 
no  word  for  deity,  no  propitiatory  acts,  no  idea  of 
another  life  —  admitting  that  only  when  a  certain 
phase  of  intelHgence  is  reached,  do  the  most  rudi- 
mentary of  such  theories  make  their  appearance,  the 
implication  is  practically  the  same.  Grant  that  among 
all  races  who  have  passed  a  certain  stage  of  intel- 
lectual development,  there  are  found  vague  notions 
concerning  the  origin  and  hidden  nature  of  surround- 
ing things,  and  there  arises  the  inference  that  such 
notions  are  necessary  products  of  progressing  intelli- 
gence. Their  endless  variety  serves  but  to  strengthen 
this  conclusion,  showing  as  it  does  a  more  or  less  in- 
dependent genesis — showing  how,  in  different  places 
and  times,  like  conditions  have  led  to  similar  trains 


48  ADVENTURE   FOR   GOD 

of  thought,  ending  in  analogous  results.  That  these 
countless  different,  and  yet  allied,  phenomena,  pre- 
sented by  all  religions,  are  accidental  or  factitious  is 
an  untenable  supposition.  .  .  .  The  universality  of 
religious  ideas,  their  independent  evolution  among 
different  primitive  races,  and  their  great  vitaHty 
unite  in  showing  that  their  source  must  be  deep- 
seated  instead  of  superficial."  ^ 

It  is  one  of  the  glad  surprises  of  evolution,  dis- 
tinguishable equally  in  nature  and  religion,  that  an 
ugly  seed  sprouts  into  a  comely  plant.  Prophecy, 
viewed  from  the  side  of  the  prophet,  is  a  looking  into 
a  seed  valuable  only  as  having  capacity  for  growth, 
and  reading  its  destiny ;  it  moves  from  crudeness  to 
perfection,  from  ungainliness  to  beauty.  The  priest 
at  the  Jewish  altar  saw  in  the  sacrifice  before  him 
beauty  by  anticipation.  We,  on  the  other  hand,  look- 
ing backward,  roll  up  the  developed  plant  into  its 
original  covering,  and  that  which  was  to  them  of  old 
time  a  glimpse  of  the  one  all-availing  self-oblation 
of  the  Saviour  of  the  world  is  to  us  a  revolting  scene 
of  butchery.  We  forget  its  horrors  only  so  far  as  we 
stand  between  the  reality  and  the  shadow. 

Even  in  a  heathen  land  to-day  where  the  religion 
that  prevails  is  crude  and  cruel,  we  have  something 
to  learn  beyond  the  fact  that  the  natives  have  religious 
1  First  Principlesy  pp.  13,  14. 


THE   APPEAL  49 

capacity.  Beneath  their  rites  and  superstitions  are 
possibilities  waiting  fulfilment.  The  substance  of  re- 
ligion, whatever  the  religion  be,  always  bears  an  af- 
finity, however  slender,  to  Christianity,  which  is  the 
fulfilment  of  each  religion  and  all  religion.  The  re- 
ligious sense  is  fed  only  by  realities,  and  every  religion 
lives  by  virtue  of  its  underlying  truth  and  not  by 
virtue  of  the  fascination  of  its  error.  A  superstition  is 
sometimes  the  distortion  of  a  religious  fact,  sometimes 
a  normal  stage  in  religious  growth  through  which  men 
must  pass  before  they  can  touch  the  higher  points  of 
inner  culture — in  short  the  beliefs  of  to-day  frequently 
fade  into  the  superstitions  of  to-morrow.  But  a  dis- 
tortion bears  witness  to  the  symmetry  upon  which  it 
has  laid  rude  hands,  just  as  imperfect  development 
does  to  degrees  of  progress  lying  in  the  future.  After 
all,  I  do  not  see  much  to  choose  in  point  of  attraction 
between  the  sacrifice  of  a  chicken  at  the  time  of  rice- 
planting  by  an  Igorrote,  and  the  Jewish  ceremonies 
which  called  for  the  immersion  of  a  living  bird  in  the 
blood  of  one  newly  slain  in  connection  with  the  cleans- 
ing of  a  leper.^  On  the  other  hand,  from  both  alike  as- 
cends the  aroma  of  devotion,  the  yearning  of  the  unful- 
filled for  fulfilment ;  in  both  may  be  seen  men  searching 
for  Christ  and  the  truth,  and  reaching  out  their  hands 
to  Him  and  to  His  Church  for  knowledge  and  succour. 
^Lev.  xiv. 


50  ADVENTURE   FOR   GOD 

Only  the  man  with  a  vision  can  discern  an  appeal 
in  the  lower  stages  of  religious  development.  Spiritual 
things  are  spiritually  discerned,  and  in  conditions 
which  conveyed  no  suggestion  of  hope  to  an  agnostic, 
an  apostle  would  discover  his  largest  opportunity.  The 
motley  crowd  that  were  the  scorn  of  the  illuminati  of 
the  day  were  counted  by  Jesus  worthy  of  companion- 
ship, and  drew  from  His  lips  some  of  the  most  touch- 
ing and  exquisite  sayings  that  ever  moved  the  heart 
of  man.-^  Among  my  treasured  possessions  is  a  letter 
from  Bishop  Westcott  in  which  he  says,  "I  have  been 
discussing  with  my  archdeacons  and  rural  deans  to- 
day some  of  the  darkest  problems  of  Durham  life. 
Even  here  there  is,  we  can  feel,  material  which  the 
Spirit  can  transfigure."  The  most  truly  hopeful  man 
is  he  who  takes  pains  to  see  the  worst  features  of  a 
situation  before  he  throws  his  weight  upon  the  side 
of  the  best ;  whereas  expectation  dependent  solely  on 
promise  is  pretty  sure  to  end  in  disappointment  if 
not  in  dismay. 

The  religion  of  Mohammed  is  not  such  as  to  inspire 
a  Christian,  but  it  creates  a  loyalty  in  its  devotees 
that  makes  one  pause  before  condemning  it  without 
reservation.  That  group  of  fanatical  Moros,  unloved 
and  unloving,  who  asked  an  American  general,  under 
whose  escort  they  were  to  halt  the  column  on  a  certain 
1 S.  Luke  XV. 


THE   APPEAL  51 

holy  day,  that  they  might  offer  to  God  that  which 
they  deemed  His  due,  and  who  paid  their  rehgious 
debt  with  simplicity  and  earnestness, — a  small  band  of 
Mohammedans  amid  a  large  command  of  not  too  de- 
vout American  soldiers, — bore  witness  to  the  power  of 
their  faith  Godward  and  the  roominess  of  their  reli- 
gious faculty.  Human  life  was  made  for  religion,  and 
religion  was  moulded  to  meet  man's  capacity,  until  the 
climbing  heights  of  Christian  truth  crown  all  lesser 
peaks  and  gather  them  into  its  own  perfection.  In 
the  strange  religious  vagaries  of  far-off  peoples  the 
missionary  descries  not  merely  religious  capacity,  but 
Christian  capacity,  and  his  lips  are  loosed  to  preach 
the  Gospel  by  the  sight. 

IV 

But  in  man's  will  as  well  as  in  his  natural  instincts 
there  is  a  prejudice  in  favour  not  only  of  religion,  but 
also  of  the  Christian  religion.  Barring  the  deafness 
of  part  of  Judaism,  there  was  extraordinary  willing- 
ness, not  to  say  eagerness,  to  listen  to  the  Apostolic 
preaching.  The  New  Testament  documents  are  de- 
scriptive of  an  increasing  and  attentive  congregation; 
the  opposition  and  persecution  recorded  are  inciden- 
tal, marking  progress  rather  than  indicating  defeat. 
The  same  may  be  said  of  the  whole  course  of  the 
Church's  history  to  the  present  time.  Very  frequently. 


52  ADVENTURE   FOR   GOD 

even  when  a  warped  character  professes  antagonism 
with  his  hps,  his  heart  is  paying  silent  homage  to  the 
truth  that  for  the  moment  his  will  refuses  to  em- 
brace. A  properly  trained  man  with  the  Christian 
message  burning  on  his  tongue  will  never  want  a  suf- 
ficient hearing.  In  the  early  part  of  my  ministry  I 
expressed  to  Bishop  Brooks  discouragement  in  what 
seemed  to  him,  and  what  afterwards  proved  to  be,  a 
missionary  opportunity  of  value.  He  replied  to  the 
effect  that  "a  preacher  of  God's  truth  is  never 
without  ample  opportunity  unless  he  is  in  a  wilder- 
ness, where  there  is  no  human  life  to  address."  It  is 
undoubtedly  true  that  in  countries  that  have  been 
under  Christian  influences  for  centuries  great  com- 
partments of  life  and  activity  can  remain  callous  to 
Christian  principles,  or  rest  satisfied  with  a  very  loose 
acceptance  of  them,  owing  to  the  apathy  that  is  bred 
of  familiarity.  But  even  here,  when  a  tiTie  prophet 
arises  he  does  not  lack  audience.  Our  age  is  weary  to 
death  of  homiletical  apologies  of  critical  or  non- 
critical  theories,  but  gives  quick  and  sustained  atten- 
tion to  a  constructive  thesis  built  on  the  basis  of  as- 
sured critical  knowledge.  Three  features  of  Christian 
preaching  portrayed  in  the  life  of  its  Author  and  of 
His  Apostle  to  the  Gentiles — features  which  will  win 
when  all  else  fails — are  absence  of  negation  save  by 
way  of  contrast;  abundance  of  positive  statement  car- 


THE   APPEAL  53 

rying  with  it  an  appeal  to  common  sense  not  less 
than  to  the  affections;  a  sparing  use  of  denunciation. 
Men  are  as  ready  to  listen  to  truth  as  they  ever  were, 
but  are  more  quick  to  distinguish  the  falsetto  from 
the  natural  than  of  yore. 

It  is  when  the  missionary  finds  himself  in  the  midst 
of  peoples  to  whom  the  name  of  Christ  is  unknown 
that  he  appreciates  how  strong  an  appeal  their  readi- 
ness to  hear  constitutes.  It  makes  the  heart  of  the 
preacher  eloquent,  even  though  his  tongue  cannot 
keep  pace.  Here  is  a  leaf  from  the  notebook  of  a 
missionary,  modern  and  wise,  working  among  sav- 
ages whose  idea  of  Christianity  until  his  coming  con- 
sisted in  a  firm  conviction  that  it  was  a  force  hostile 
to  their  traditions  and  unproductive  of  good  among 
men  of  their  blood.  "I  had  in  my  pocket  some  copies 
of  a  version  of  the  Creed,  the  '  Our  Father,'  and  the 
substance  and  meaning  of  the  Ten  Commandments, 
which,  by  dint  of  labour,  we  have  put  together  in  the 
local  dialect.  So  when  a  dozen  or  so  of  the  chief  men 
were  squatting  around  me  smoking,  I  produced  these, 
and  having  handed  around  copies,  by  way  of  compH- 
ment,  I  proceeded  to  read  and  give  such  explanation 
as  I  was  able  with  my  limited  knowledge  of  the  lan- 
guage. Attentive  my  hearers  were  and  appreciative, 
some  of  them  taking  up  the  theme  of  a  command- 
ment, approving  and  amplifying  in  a  way  that  I  could 


54  ADVENTURE   FOR   GOD 

not  always  follow,  even  remotely.  At  last  there  was  a 
sober  pause,  and  then  two  of  them,  as  if  simultaneously 
inspired,  began  a  deep-toned  chant  or  recitative,  in 
minor  key: 

It  is  very  good  that 

The  Apo-Pachi  ^  of  Bontoc 

Came  to  Tukukan 

To  teach  the  people 

The  Commandments  of  God."  ^ 

A  few  years  before,  in  the  same  district,  for  the  first 
time  I  stood  before  a  group  of  heathen  who  had  come 
to  hear  what  I  had  to  say.  The  scene  is  indelibly 
burned  into  my  memory  —  their  statuesque  figures 
as  they  stood  immovable,  serious,  with  a  hungry  look 
in  their  eyes ;  the  cruel  barrier  of  language  shutting 
me  out  from  communication  with  them;  a  few  halt- 
ing words  in  our  own  tongue  which  to  them  must 
have  been  but  a  medley  of  incoherent  sounds,  then 
the  calm  consciousness  that  God  had  not  been  baffled, 
but  had  taught  them  something  of  His  truth  through 
the  imperfect  media  placed  by  us  at  His  disposal. 

The  interesting  experiment  was  recently  tried  of 
sending  one  of  our  leaders  ^  of  Christian  thought  and 
life  to  give  a  course  of  lectures  in  the  Orient  on  Chris- 

1  Sir-father. 

2  The  Rev.  W.  C.  Clapp,  in  The  Spirit  of  Missions. 

3  The  Rev.  Charles  Cuthbert  HaU. 


THE   APPEAL  55 

tianity.  He  returned  all  aglow  with  the  reception  with 
which  his  message  had  met.  The  Buddhist  zealot  of 
Ceylon  and  Japan,  and  the  scholarly  Mohammedan 
of  India,  sat  at  his  feet  appreciative  of  the  noncon- 
troversial  truths  which  he  presented  to  them,  and,  as 
he  left,  entreated  him  to  come  again.  Probably  no 
converts  were  made,  but  a  new  vista  of  Christ's  re- 
ligion was  opened  up  and  the  way  made  easy  for  fur- 
ther ventures  of  like  character.  If  all  that  Christianity 
asks  for  is  a  fair  hearing,  all  that  the  Orient  asks  for 
is  a  fair  statement,  and  the  world  of  men  are  as  ready 
to  hear  as  the  King's  messengers  are  to  speak.  There 
are  but  two  great  realities  in  the  vast  universe, — 
the  heart  of  God  and  the  heart  of  man,  and  each  is 
ever  seeking  the  other.  It  is  this  that  makes  adven- 
ture for  God  not  an  experiment,  but  a  certainty.  The 
appeal  issuing  from  man's  abysmal  need  is  met  by  the 
amplitude  of  the  divine  suppl}^It  is  a  horror  to  think 
of  facing  human  need  —  sooner  or  later  every  seri- 
ous-minded man  is  forced  to  face  it  —  without  vision 
or  vitality.  The  sole  thing  left  for  such  a  one  is  to 
break  his  heart  across  the  bars  of  the  prisoners'  cage 
before  which  he  stands,  impotent  though  compassion- 
ate, and  die.  He  might  clothe  himself  in  apathy,  it 
is  true,  but  it  were  preferable  to  die.  God,  however, 
requires  neither  tragic  alternative,  for  He  has  clothed 
His  humblest  servant  with  power,  y 


56  ADVENTURE   FOR   GOD 

The  Spirit  of  the  Lord  is  upon  me, 

Because  He  anointed  me  to  preach  good  tidings  to  the 

poor : 
He  hath  sent  me  to  proclatjn  release  to  the  captives. 
And  recovering  of  sight  to  the  blijid, 
To  set  at  liberty  them  that  are  bruised, 
To  proclaim  the  acceptable  year  of  the  Lord. 


LECTURE   III 

THE   RESPONSE 

Then  Sir  Galahad  drew  out  his  sword,  and  set  upon  them  so 
hard  that  it  was  a  marvel  to  see  it,  and  so,  through  great 
force,  he  made  them  to  forsake  the  field ;  and  Galahad 
chased  them  until  they  entered  into  the  castle  at  another  gate. 
And  there  met  Sir  Galahad  an  old  man,  clothed  iii  religious 
clothing,  and  said.  Sir,  have  here  the  keys  of  this  castle.  Then 
Sir  Galahad  opened  the  gates,  and  saw  so  much  people  in 
the  streets  that  he  might  not  remember  them,  and  all  said. 
Sir,  ye  be  welcome,  for  long  have  we  abiden  here  our  de- 
liverance. 


WITH  the  vision  of  an  effective  life,  with  abun- 
dant vitahty  clamouring  for  expression,  and 
under  the  spell  of  an  appeal,  half  dumb,  half  spoken, 
from  those  in  need  of  what  adventurers  for  God  could 
give,  these  apostolic  knights  are  prepared  for  action. 
The  exact  sphere  that  would  claim  them  has  yet  to  be 
determined. 

For  a  moment  they  pause  on  the  threshold  of  their 
old  home  like  hounds,  fresh  loosed  from  the  leash ; 
and  then,  catching  the  scent,  they  speed  toward  their 
quarry.  Their  biographies  are  brief,  for  they  quickly 
slip  out  of  sight,  lost  in  the  fine  oblivion  of  effective 
service. 

They  were  not  driven  away  by  persecution — the 
Jerusalem  church  was  scattered   abroad,  except  the 

I  57 


58  ADVENTURE   FOR   GOD 

apostles}  S.  Paul's  biography  is  representative,  and 
reasoning  from  what  we  know  of  his  career  and  that 
of  S.  Peter,  it  is  fair  to  infer  that  the  rest  of  the  group 
were  not  less  favoured,  but  like  them  were  always 
guided  by  the  Spirit  in  their  course  and  identified 
each  with  some  special  work.  The  detail  of  legends 
telling  whither  the  different  Apostles  went  may  be  in 
error,  but  the  residuum  of  truth  that  abides  indicates 
that  they  were  occupied  in  various  national  movements. 
-^  This  is  what  Scripture  would  lead  us  to  expect.  Em- 
phasis was  laid  by  Christ,  in  a  way  that  does  not  al- 
low of  any  explanation  save  that  of  carefully  con- 
ceived design,  on  the  word  "nations."  To  quote  classic 
instances :  The  gospel  must  first  he  preached  unto 
all  the  nations}  This  gospel  of  the  kingdom  shall  he 
preached  in  the  whole  wmidjbr  a  testimony  unto  all 
the  nations;  and  then  shall  the  end  come}  Thus  it  is 
written,  that  the  Christ  should  siiffer,  and  rise  again 
from  the  dead  the  third  day;  and  that  repentance  and 
remission  of  sins  should  he  pi^eached  in  his  name  unto 
all  the  nations,  heginningfrom  Jerusalem}  Go  ye  there- 
fore, and  make  disciples  of  all  the  nations,^ — not  dis- 
ciples "out  of"  or  "from;"  but  the  nation  is  spoken 

i^c^^viii,  1.  2^^  Mark  xiii,  10. 

3  S.  Matt,  xxiv,  14.  4  s.  Luke  xxiv,  46,  47. 

^  S.  Matt,  xxviii,  19;  see  also  S.  Matt,  xxi,  43;  xxiv,  9. 


THE   RESPONSE  59 

of  as  a  unit,  iropevOevre^  ovv  fJtxi6r]Tev(raT€  Travra  to.  Wvq. 
S.  Paul  recalls  prophecy:  The  scripture,  Jvreseeing 
that  God  would  justify  the  Gentiles  (another  word  for 
"nations")  by  Jaith,  preached  the  gospel  beforehand 
unto  Abraham,  saying.  In  thee  shall  all  the  nations  be 
blessed}  The  revelation  of  the  mystery  .  .  .  now  is  mani- 
fested, and  by  the  scriptures  of  the  prophets,  according 
to  the  commandment  of  the  eternal  God,  is  made  know7i 
unto  all  the  nations  unto  obedience  of  faith?  To  give 
one  more  quotation,  this  time  from  S.  John :  Tlie  na- 
tions shall  walk  amidst  the  light  of  (the  city  of  God). 
.  .  .  They  shall  bring  the  glory  and  the  honour  of  the 
nations  into  it} 

The  Jews  had  been  prepared  by  the  teaching  of  ages 
to  look  on  their  nation  as  being  of  divine  origin  and 
living  under  divine  superintendence.  It  was  shaped  at 
its  birth  by  God's  formative  hand,  and  throughout  its 
history  His  loving  interferences,  consoling  or  disci- 
plinary as  required,  ruled  its  progress.  Always  the  me- 
dium of  divine  revelation,  the  nation  was  the  Church, 
and  the  Church  was  the  nation.  Advance  in  national 
consciousness  was  marked  by  the  adoption  of  a  new 
name  for  God.  Javeh  Tsebaoth  in  its  earliest  appHca- 
tion  had  reference  to  the  armies  of  Israel  itself,  "which 

1  Gal.  iii,  8.  2  iJo^^,  xvi,  25,  26. 

3  Rev.  xxi,  24  ff. ;  see  also  ii,  26 ;  vii,  9 ;  xxii,  2. 


60  ADVENTURE   FOR  GOD 

were  habitually  regarded  as  the  hosts  of  Jehovah, 
marching  under  Him  as  their  captain,  waging  war  in 
His  name."  ^  Whatever  else  God  was.  He  was  first  of 
all  a  national  God. 

The  exalted  conception  of  the  nation  entertained 
by  the  units  of  which  it  is  composed  indicates  the 
value  if  not  the  divinity  of  national  life.  In  early 
days  citizenship  was  an  unknown  thing,  because  citi- 
zenship implies  respect  on  the  part  of  the  state  for 
each  personality  included  within  its  bounds.  Family 
and  tribal  features  were  more  conspicuous  than  those 
of  the  individual,  but  towering  above  both  stood  the 
nation.  Personality  was  valuable  only  so  far  as  it  con- 
tributed to  the  upbuilding  of  the  commonwealth. 
Patriotism  was  the  earliest  conspicuous  virtue,  the 
prophets  of  the  chosen  people  being  their  patriots. 
In  how  high  esteem,  how  divine  a  structure,  they  held 
the  nation  to  be  is  shown  by  the  fact  that  before  be- 
lief in  immortality  was  definitely  shaped,  it  was  con- 
ceived a  sufficient  reward  for  self-sacrifice  to  the  death 
that  the  victim  should  by  his  act  have  contributed 
something  to  the  vitality  of  his  nation. 
/  The  sanctity  which  the  Jews  ascribed  to  their  race 
was  right  in  essence,  though  wrong  in  its  current  in- 
terpretation, which  conceived  that  theocracy  stood 
for  the  isolation  of  one  nation  from  the  rest  of  the 
1  Bampton  Lectures  (1897),  p.  186. 


THE   RESPONSE  61 

world  as  being  the  unique  instance  in  which  there 
was  an  abiding  principle  of  divine  government.^  Had 
they  but  been  able  to  see  it,  the  divine  capacity  of  all 
the  nations  was  implied  in  God's  promise  to  Abra- 
ham.^ It  was  a  lesson  hard  to  learn  that  "  the  princi- 
ples in  which  Judea  was  formed  are  represented  as 
the  universal  and  immutable  laws  which  are  a  condi- 
tion of  the  life  of  a  nation.  If  it  had  not  a  divine 
origin  and  unity,  if  there  had  not  been  in  it  the  pre- 
sence of  an  invisible  King,  it  would  then  have  been 
the  exception,  and  its  course  the  singular  circum- 
stance, the  abnormal  condition,  in  history."  It  took 
all  the  dialectic  and  ardour  of  S.  Paul  to  convince 
even  a  few  that  God  made  of' one  blood  all  nations  of 
men  to  dwell  on  the  face  of  the  whole  earthy  having 
determined  their  appointed  seasons  and  the  bounds  of 
their  habitation. 

It  is  a  significant  fact,  indicating  the  stubbornness 
of  Jewish  bias  toward  exclusiveness,  that  a  large  part 
of  his  extant  writings  is  occupied  in  proclaiming  that 
Christ  is  for  the  nations,  and  the  nations  for  Christ. 
This  stands  out  more  prominently  than  any  dog- 
matic utterance,  being  bound  up  with  his  doctrine  of 
justification  by  faith,  and  is  the  constant  accompani- 
ment of  the  song  of  the  Incarnation  which  he  sings. 
We  know  that  in  our  own  pei*sonal  religious  experi- 
1  See  Josephus.  2  Q^yi^  xii,  3. 


62  ADVENTURE   FOR   GOD 

ence,  if  we  get  some  revelation  of  God  that  bears 
upon  our  happiness  or  development,  we  can  easily 
come  to  believe  it  to  be  unique.  It  is  hard  to  realize, 
indeed  it  can  only  be  realized  after  a  season  of  train- 
ing, that  while  God  has  a  special  revelation  for  each 
individual,  His  love  and  care  of  every  one  else  is  as 
great  as  that  bestowed  upon  us. 

We  can  appreciate  how  the  very  fact  that  S.  Paul 
had  at  one  time  so  intense  and  so  exclusive  a  concep- 
tion of  the  divine  character  of  his  own  nation  would, 
when  his  vision  had  broadened,  be  the  finest  cham- 
pion that  could  be  found  of  that  of  other  nations.  It 
took  time  for  him  to  grasp  the  idea  of  catholicity, 
but  once  having  made  it  his  own,  the  fire  of  his  con- 
viction set  aflame  the  world. 

Insistence  on  this  tmth  w^as  of  importance  to  deter- 
mine the  direction  of  apostolic  effort,  —  whether  to 
masses  of  men  bound  by  inherent  ties,  or  to  chance 
individuals  who  might  be  ready  to  listen  to  the 
Gospel  appeal.  The  character  of  the  Gospel  was  in 
itself  a  deciding  factor.  Its  social  character  required 
for  its  nourishment  social  soil.  The  closer  woven  the 
web  of  life,  the  completer  the  Christian  opportunity. 
Christ's  teaching  had  emphasized  the  nation  as  the 
main  point  of  evangelical  attack,  so  that  when  once 
the  realization  of  the  capacity  for  truth,  or  if  you 
choose,  of  the  potential  sanctity,  of  all  nations  was 


THE   RESPONSE  63 

established  in  the  minds  of  the  first  missionary  band, 
their  plan  of  action  was  not  difficult  to  sketch. 

II 

Naturally  the  first  piece  of  national  work  to  be  un- 
dertaken was  the  evangelization  of  the  Jews.  It  was 
ready  at  hand,  and  in  the  course  of  the  enterprise  the 
Apostles  would  have  a  chance  to  grow  into  that  world 
consciousness  which  was  bound  to  come  because  of  the 
various  forces  from  without,  as  well  as  from  within, 
playing  upon  them  and  urging  them  towards  it. 

Their  first  preaching  was  in  the  Temple,  as  being 
the  centre  and  symbol  of  the  nation's  unity.  By  the 
use  of  its  revered  precincts  they  could  best  reach  the 
heart  of  the  people.  No  building  in  the  world's  history, 
neither  Westminster  Abbey  in  London  nor  S.  Peter's 
in  Rome,  ever  controlled  thought  and  life  as  power- 
fully as  this  monument  of  Judaism.  When  Rome  had 
exhausted  herself  in  her  endeavour  to  fit  the  Jewish 
nation  into  her  imperial  system,  she  thought  to  deal 
her  stubborn  antagonists  a  death-blow  by  razing  to 
the  ground  the  Holy  City,  and  together  with  it  the 
Temple.  In  its  courts  the  young  church  continued 
steadfastly  day  by  day;^  there  S.  Peter  reminded  the 
excited  throng  of  God's  promise  to  Abraham,  and  that 
Christ's  blessing  was  to  rest  first  upon  them;^  there 
1  Acts  ii,  46.  2  j_cts  iii,  25,  26. 


64  ADVENTURE  FOR  GOD 

before  the  Sanhedrim  S.  Stephen  sounded  the  keynote 
of  catholicity;^  there  the  feet  of  S.  Paul  trod  for  the 
last  time  as  a  free  man  before  he  was  taken  a  prisoner 
to  Rome.^ 

In  course  of  time  S.  Paul  discovered  his  vocation  as 
Apostle  to  the  Gentiles,  but  his  patriotic  zeal  does 
not  allow  him  to  forget  men  of  his  own  blood.  Bre- 
thren, he  says  with  fervour,  my  hearfs  desire  and  my 
supplication  to  God  is  for  them,  that  they  may  be  saved. ^ 
If  there  are  Jews  in  any  place  whither  he  goes  in  his 
travels,  it  is  to  them  that  he  addresses  his  first  coun- 
sel and  exhortation.  It  is  true  that  when  his  fellow- 
countrymen  show  invincible  prejudice  that  he  exclaims 
in  anger  thsit  foom  henceforth  he  will  go  unto  the  Gen- 
tiles} But  he  cannot  be  taken  too  seriously,  in  that  we 
presently  find  him  as  hard  at  work  as  ever  in  a  syna- 
gogue.^ However,  he  is  altogether  too  sane  a  man  to 
continue  indefinitely  to  spend  himself  to  no  purpose, 
though  even  when  his  world  scheme  is  in  full  swing, 
there  is  no  indication  of  a  subsiding  love  for  the  Jew. 
He  had  a  twofold  citizenship,  one  of  blood  and  one 
of  privilege,  but  loyalty  to  the  latter  did  not  interfere 
with  the  largest  appreciation  of  the  former.^ 

1  Acts  vii.  2  jicts  xxi,  27.  ^  Eom.  x,  1. 

*  Acts  xviii,  6.  ^  Acts  xix. 

6  If  it  is  possible  to  fix  a  precise  moment  in  which  he  irrevocably 
throws  the  balance  on  the  side  of  Roman  as  distinguished  from 
Jewish  citizenship,  it  would  seem  to  be  on  the  occasion  when  he 


THE   RESPONSE  65 

The  first  cases  in  which  was  recognition  of  the  spirit- 
ual rights  of  those  who  belonged  to  other  races  were 
what  might  be  called  sporadic.  S.  Paul  was  the  first 
stable  and  permanent  force  that  made  for  catholicity. 
In  the  earlier  moments  of  Christianity  believers  ex- 
pected that  their  Lord  was  shortly  to  return  to  earth. 
They  could  not  look  at  a  passing  cloud  without  feeling 
that  He  might  emerge  from  its  depths.  They  could 
not  retire  to  rest  without  the  expectation,  almost 
amounting  to  belief,  that  they  would  be  awakened  by 
the  call  to  judgement  before  the  rising  of  the  morning 
sun.  They  could  not  begin  a  day's  task  without  a 
sense  of  the  imminence  of  His  return.  The  result  was, 
in  some  instances  at  any  rate,  a  paralysis  that  pre- 
vented men  from  heeding  the  ordinary  obligations  of 
life  and  fulfilling  their  allotted  task. 

In  view  of  this  solemn  anticipation,  any  conception 
of  nationalism  would  be  lost  sight  of.  Even  S.  Paul, 
with  all  his  far-sightedness,  for  a  while  shared  the  cur- 
rent idea.  He,  however,  had  the  balance  which  most 
of  his  fellows  lacked.  He  saw  that  the  truest  way  to 
meet  Christ  was  with  hands  laden  with  the  duties  of 
the  day,  and  he  writes  to  the  Thessalonians  with  in- 
dignation at  their  inertness.  When  the  hour  struck 

is  compelled  by  hopeless  Jewish  injustice  to  appeal  to  Caesar 
(Acts  XXV,  11).  At  a  much  earlier  period,  however,  he  begins  to 
figure  as  a  citizen  of  the  Empire  (ch.  xiii). 


66  ADVENTURE   FOR   GOD 

in  which  he  realized  that  time  was  of  no  account,  and 
that  the  second  coming  of  Christ  was  as  likely  to  be 
long  delayed  as  to  be  near  at  hand,  we  find  him,  with 
sober  judgement  and  practical  skill,  seizing  hold  of 
everything  human  and  making  it  a  channel  for  the 
promotion  of  the  catholic  gospel  of  his  Master.  As  we 
have  noted,  he  lays  his  life  along  the  unwilling  body 
of  the  Jewish  race,  as  is  natural  that  he  should,  because 
he  is  a  Hebrew  of  the  Hebrews,  and  the  sense  of  his 
citizenship  in  the  chosen  people  tingles  to  his  very 
finger-ends.  Having  done  his  utmost  for  them,  only  to 
be  repelled,  he  turns  without  despair,  and  with  new 
resoluteness,  to  his  larger  vocation. 

As  a  citizen  of  the  Roman  Empire,  freeborn,  he 
has  a  pride  that  belongs  to  every  true  patriot  in  his 
relationship  to  the  imperial  city  and  its  world-wide 
schemes.  Though  the  clamour  of  multiform  needs 
touches  his  emotions,  the  call  comes  to  him  to  make 
use  of  the  Roman  control  of  the  world  in  order  that 
he  may  reach  by  means  of  it  the  uttermost  parts  of 
the  earth.  He  seizes  on  every  coign  of  vantage,  set- 
ting his  ambition  on  preaching  the  Lord  Jesus  in  the 
shadow  of  the  palace  of  the  Caesars.  His  restless  gaze 
penetrates  farther  still,  and  he  plans  to  reach  Spain. 
The  tradition,  mythical  as  it  is,  of  his  having  gone 
to  England  is  worthy  of  the  man,  bearing  testimony 
to  his  all-embracing  love. 


THE   RESPONSE  67 

Though  there  are  no  words  of  the  Apostle  declar- 
ing that  he  believed  the  Roman  Empire  to  be  God's 
handiwork, — a  truth  reserved  for  poetic  expression  in 
later  centuries, — his  attitude  toward  it  is  as  expressive 
of  his  conviction  as  a  De  Monarchia  or  a  Divine  Com- 
edy would  have  been.  He  feels  it  to  be  the  best  re- 
ceptacle available  into  which  to  pour  Christian  truth. 
The  perfection  of  its  organization,  the  expanse  of  its 
domain,  the  diversity  of  its  provinces,  on  the  one 
hand;  and  on  the  other  the  justice  of  its  decrees,  its 
interest  in  the  individual  life,  its  ideal  of  brother- 
hood, the  tactfulness  of  its  methods,  were  features  of 
its  life  for  which  the  Apostle  could  not  fail  to  have  a 
growing  appreciation,  as  not  only  admirable  in  them- 
selves, but  also  as  an  instrument  for  furthering  God's 
purposes  among  men.  Seeing  these  things  he  saw  far, 
but  not  to  the  end.  He  could  not  understand  that 
Rome  was  ordained  to  be  the  foster-mother  of  na- 
tions yet  unborn,  and  that  the  Church  of  Rome  was 
to  become  the  stepmother,  not  always  unkind,  of 
national  Christianity  throughout  the  world.  Nor  could 
he  foresee  that  Roman  citizenship,  which  more  and 
more  as  life  went  on  fired  his  imagination  and  kindled 
his  pride,  predicated  a  day  when  the  state  would  be 
coextensive  with  the  nation,  and  citizenship  would 
become  less  a  matter  of  blood  and  more  one  of  choice, 
thus  establishing  a  new  basis,  making  for  peace  and 


68  ADVENTURE   FOR  GOD 

good  will  on  a  large  scale.^  But  he  saw  enough  to  in- 
spire him  with  the  purpose  of  pressing  the  body  of 
Christ  on  the  body  of  the  Empire,  mouth  upon  mouth, 
eyes  upon  eyes,  hands  upon  hands,  until  it  waxed  as 
warm  with  imparted  vitality  as  the  Shuhammite"'s  boy 
under  the  touch  of  Elisha.^  With  wide  discernment 
he  injected  the  truth  into  the  artery  of  travel  between 
Rome  and  the  East,  fixing  himself  on  vital  parts  un- 
til the  regions  round  about  caught  the  new  life  from 
the  colonies,  and  in  turn  passed  it  on  to  the  farthest 
bounds  of  the  provincial  system. 

It  was  in  this  way  that  the  command,  the  invita- 
tion, the  promise,  that  all  nations  were  to  be  evangel- 
ized began  to  express  itself  in  activity. 

Ill 

Undoubtedly  the  earliest  though  not  the  last  mis- 
sionary obligation  is  along  the  line  of  national  com- 
merce and  expansion,  as  is  exemplified  in  the  history 
of  the  Church  of  England,  though  she  did  not  rise  to 
a  sense  of  any  duty  excepting  to  men  of  British  blood 
until  1799,  when  the  Church  Missionary  Society,  a 
voluntary  association  for  the  exclusive  work  of  evan- 
gelizing the  heathen,  was  founded.  A  year  later  the  So- 

1  Seth  Low  in  the  Annals  of  the  American  Academy  of  Political 
and  Social  Science. 

2  2  Kings  iv,  34-. 


THE   RESPONSE  69 

ciety  for  the  Propagation  of  the  Gospel  in  Foreign 
Parts,  ah-eady  venerable  in  years,  like  Abraham  when 
he  had  his  vision,  extended  its  missionary  horizon  to 
include  other  heathen  than  a  handful  of  American 
Indians.  But  the  last  century  was  no  longer  young 
when  the  Church  of  England  rose  superior  to  the  im- 
perial conception  of  missionary  responsibility,  and 
stooped  her  shoulders  to  receive  the  whole  of  the 
Lord's  burden. 

Our  own  Church  in  her  missionary  life,  by  following 
along  the  lines  of  national  expansion,  has  done  only 
the  natural  thing,  and  had  she  failed  to  be  bold  in 
moments  of  perplexity,  would  have  forfeited  all  claim 
to  national  character.  The  one  seemingly  doubtful 
element  is  found  where  such  territories  as  California, 
Texas,  Porto  Rico  and  the  Philippines  are  concerned, 
territories  in  which  Spanish  Latin  Christianity  has 
long  been  established.  The  question,  however,  was  set- 
tled more  than  half  a  century  ago  at  the  consecration 
of  Bishop  Kip.  The  condition  of  Christendom  being 
what  it  is,  the  question  of  jurisdiction  in  such  cases 
is  too  nice  to  be  rational  or  to  carry  weight.  I  have 
no  hesitation  in  saying  that  if  you  are  in  a  position 
entailing  a  conflict  between  the  ecclesiastical  and  the 
moral,  in  taking  your  stand  with  the  former  you 
abandon  the  Person  of  Christ  and  His  righteousness 
for  the  sake  of  being  respectful  to  a  skeleton  organi- 


70  ADVENTURE    FOR   GOD 

zation  as  little  deserving  consideration  as  a  valley  of 
dry  bones. 

The  Church  of  England  has  had  a  rare  opportunity 
in  her  colonial  work  alone  to  study  the  phenomenon 
of  nationality  in  relation  to  religion.  It  is  only  at 
this  late  date,  however,  that  it  is  beginning  to  dawn 
upon  us  how  important  it  is  to  study  thoroughly  the 
racial  and  national  characteristics  for  practical  ends. 
It  may  be  that  we  are  running  to  an  extreme  in 
minimizing  the  extent  to  which  Western  administra- 
tion and  Western  ideas  have  influenced  the  inner  life 
of  Africans  or  Asiastics.  But  there  is  no  room  to 
doubt  that  wherever  the  instincts  of  a  people  are  done 
violence  to,  wherever  the  colonial  government  is  re- 
pressive rather  than  expressive  of  the  possibilities  of 
native  life,  wherever  the  missionary  enterprise  has 
consisted  merely  in  inflicting  a  Western  conception 
of  Christianity  on  an  Eastern  people,  the  wheels  of 
permanent  progress  become  clogged,  and  national 
conversion  fades  into  a  distant  prospect.  An  acute  ob- 
server and  defender  of  empire  remarks  of  British  rule 
in  India  that  "it  tends  to  destroy  native  originality, 
vigour,  and  initiative.  How  to  replace  what  our  rule 
takes  away  is  the  great  Indian  problem."^  The  same 
must  be  true  of  every  mission  in  which  there  is  not 
such  a  reverence  for  national  character  that  the  least 
^  Bernard  Holland  in  Imperium  et  Libertas,  p.  12. 


THE   RESPONSE  71 

local  custom  is  considered  worthy  of  study  and  in- 
terpretation. The  quarrel  as  to  what  is  the  essence 
and  what  the  accidents  of  Christianity — most  of  us 
are  cocksure  that  we  know!  —  must  be  settled  before 
we  can  accomplish  our  best  work  abroad,  though  on 
the  other  hand  we  are  in  a  fair  way  to  solve  the  pro- 
blem if  we  prosecute  that  work  in  the  spirit  of  open- 
minded  sympathy.  Illumination  and  knowledge  are 
wont  to  come  to  us  through  the  sacrament  of  the  sim- 
ple duty  of  to-day  simply  performed. 

God  made  no  two  individuals  alike  and  no  two 
nations.  It  is  not  the  variety  of  genera  that  is  the 
largest  marvel  of  creation,  but  the  variety  of  species 
and  individuals  within  each  genus.  Just  as  individual 
conversion  consists  in  changing  not  facts  or  tempera- 
ment, but  relationships,  so  with  the  evangelization  of 
the  nations. 

The  Reformation  of  the  sixteenth  century  M^as  less 
an  outburst  of  revolt  against  theological  error  than 
the  spontaneous  blazing  up  of  outraged  national  life. 
"  It  was  not  Luther  who  shattered  a  so-called  Catho- 
lic unity  into  fragments,  but  the  expansion  of  na- 
tional consciousness,  whether  in  France,  in  Germany, 
or  in  England."  ^  The  Empire  that  in  God's  counsels 
had  been  ordained  to  be  the  guardian  for  a  while  of 
adolescence  sank  into  the  capacity  of  an  oppressor 
1  See  Allen's  Continuity  of  Christian  Thought,  pp.  248,  320. 


72  ADVENTURE   FOR   GOD 

until  the  strength  of  youth  rose  in  its  might  and 
struck  for  freedom.  Men  may  lament  the  doctrines 
which  were  taught  by  the  extremists  of  the  Reforma- 
tion, and,  confusing  an  incident  in  a  movement  with 
the  movement  itself,  give  vent  to  broad  condemna- 
tion of  the  whole,  but  they  cannot  enjoy  any  of  the 
larger  national  privileges  and  liberties  of  to-day 
without  paying  homage  to  the  Reformation. 

The  sanctity  of  the  nation  is  inherent.  The  nation 
is  a  holy  thing,  not  as  being  guilty  of  a  grande  latro- 
cinium^  not  as  deriving  a  reflected  glory  from  the 
Church,  but  holy  in  that  it  is  a  sphere  of  God's  pre- 
sence on  earth,  and  as  truly  indwelt  by  Him,  though 
for  a  different  purpose,  as  the  Church  herself.  Just  as 
in  the  beginning  Roman  pohty  and  Roman  organiza- 
tion were  factors  in  shaping  and  colouring  the  Church's 
life,  so  to-day  every  church  in  Christendom  that  as- 
pires to  be  national  must  become  so  by  putting  her- 
self en  rapport  with  the  nation.  We  are  bordering  on 
the  worst  fault  of  Judaism  if  we  think  of  our  own  as 
being  the  only  holy  or  the  most  holy  nation,  or  the 
Roman  Empire  as  being  the  unique  instance  in  which 
national  polity  and  organization  could  be  allowed  to 
influence  the  Church. 

Various  have  been  the  mechanical  efforts  to  put 
Church  and  State  in  a  true  relation  to  one  another  — 
1  De  Civ'Uaie  Dei. 


THE   RESPONSE  73 

domination  of  State  over  Church,  then  of  Church  over 
State  ;  partnership  under  a  legal  agreement,  and  finally 
a  free  Church  in  a  free  State.  But  it  is  by  no  formal 
or  artificial  compact  that  the  ideal  union  is  consum- 
mated. The  natural  relation  is  the  most  divine,  and 
only  those  countries  in  which  the  Church  and  State 
occupy  cognate  spheres,  each  jealous  for  the  other''s 
rights  within  its  province,  does  either  Church  or  Gov- 
ernment have  its  largest  opportunity.  Whenever  the 
Church  tries  to  manipulate  state  affairs,  or  to  pull 
the  cords  of  political  matters,  confusion  and  conflict 
ensue.  It  is  bound  to  be  so,  for  divine  laws  are  being 
slighted,  the  sanctity  of  the  nation  ignored. 

The  story  of  the  first  days  of  Christianity  in  Japan 
is  of  missionary  value.  The  character  and  zeal  of 
Francis  Xavier  are  an  inspiration  for  all  time,  but  he 
brought  with  him  to  Japan  (1549)  the  defects  of  the 
papal  Christianity  which  he  represented.  Disregard 
for  the  sacredness  of  national  life  and  institutions, 
similar  to  that  which  awoke  the  slumbering  lion  of 
nationalism  in  Europe,  stirred  to  the  core  the  Japa- 
nese, who  then  as  now  were  ardent  nationalists.  Smoul- 
dering fires  burst  into  flame  early  in  the  seventeenth 
century  when  leyasu,  under  the  justifiable  conviction 
that  national  affairs  were  being  tampered  with  by 
the  priests,  and  that  the  Empire  was  thereby  endan- 
gered, issued  his  edict  of  expulsion  and  extirpation. 


74  ADVENTURE   FOR   GOD 

Less  than  forty  years  after  Xavier  arrived  at  Kago- 
shima  the  storm  began  to  brew.  The  Portuguese  and 
Spanish  traders  "began  to  hbel  each  other  to  the 
Japanese  authorities."  The  ire  of  Taiko  Sama  was 
roused  by  the  gossip  of,  some  say  a  Portuguese,  others 
a  Spanish,  sea-captain.  Chamberlain  narrates  the 
story.  ^  " '  Our  kings,'  so  this  bluff  sailor  is  reported 
to  have  said,  'begin  by  sending  into  the  countries 
they  wish  to  conquer  priests  who  induce  the  people  to 
embrace  our  religion,  and  when  they  have  made  con- 
siderable progress,  troops  are  despatched,  who  com- 
bine with  the  new  Christians,  and  then  our  kings  have 
not  much  trouble  in  accomplishing  the  rest.'  Though 
not  to  be  taken  literally,  there  was  doubtless  a  foun- 
dation of  fact  for  the  statement  thus  imprudently 
blurted  out, —  the  i-ulers  of  Spain  and  Portugal,  as 
we  know  full  well  from  their  proceedings  in  other 
quarters  of  the  globe,  were  anything  but  single-minded 
in  their  dealings  with  native  races.  History  repeats 
itself;  for  the  conduct  of  Europe  towards  China  in 
our  own  day  exhibits  precisely  the  same  medley  of 
genuine  piety  on  the  part  of  the  missionaries  and 
shameless  aggression  on  the  part  of  the  countries  which 
send  them  out."  Thus  the  ruin  of  a  fair  hope  was  in- 
itiated by  the  lust  of  traders  and  consummated  by  the 
intrigue  of  missionaries. 
1  Things  Japanese,  p.  322,  note. 


THE   RESPONSE  75 

It  is  a  matter  for  congratulation  that  all  the 
missions  in  China,  with  the  one  unfortunate  exception 
of  the  Roman  Catholics,  refused  to  assume  political 
rights  and  duties  such  as  the  French  papal  mission- 
aries sought  for  and  secured  at  the  end  of  the  last 
century.  The  allurement  of  momentary  prestige  was 
promptly  declined  in  order  that  spiritual  power 
might  remain  pure  and  free,  and  that  Chinese  national 
rights  might  be  duly  respected. 

Christianity,  once  having  gained  foothold  in  a 
nation,  should  lend  all  her  energies  to  adapting  it — 
and  Christianity  is  far  more  adaptable  where  national 
life  is  concerned  than  many  of  us  suppose — to  local 
tradition,  thought  and  temperament.  The  nation 
should  be  trained,  like  the  child,  according  to  its 
bent.  Here,  for  instance,  is  a  Malay  tribe,  brought 
into  touch  with  a  rigid  form  of  Christianity,  who,  so 
far  from  being  won,  only  stiffen  into  aloofness  be- 
cause they  intuitively  feel  they  would  lose  their  tribal 
character  by  submitting  to  baptism.  Let  a  sympathetic 
missionary  go  to  them  and  show  how  tenderly  and 
sympathetically  individuality  and  local  traditions  are 
handled,  and  suspicion  will  gradually  give  place  to 
glad  acceptance  of  Christ's  truth  and  righteousness. 
Throughout  the  East  this  is  becoming  more  and 
more  a  recognized  method.  The  day  of  iconoclasm  is 
past,  and  generous  sympathy  now  holds  the  sceptre. 


76  ADVENTURE   FOR   GOD 

In  Japan  the  patient  missionaries  of  Christ,  often 
blunderingly  no  doubt,  are  "  working  their  way  into 
the  soul  of  the  nation.  They  are  conscious  as  no  one 
else  is,  that  inspiration  can  come  to  Japan  only 
through  her  own  prophets,  that  all  that  is  not  essential 
to  the  well-being  of  God's  kingdom  on  earth  —  foreign 
garments,  Western  ideas  —  must  be  stripped  away 
before  the  full  power  of  Christianity  can  be  experi- 
enced; and  they  are  always  working  with  this  end  in 
view.  It  is  wisdom,  not  self-importance,  that  explains 
the  reluctance  of  the  missionaries  to  give  the  Japa- 
nese Church  immediate  autonomy ;  the  times  are  not 
ripe.  Slowly,  from  the  bottom  upward.  Christian  truth 
is  making  its  royal  progress,  and  in  due  season 
Japan's  prayer  for  abiding  inspiration  will  be  answered 
throughout  her  length  and  breadth."  ^ 

IV 

But  the  winning  of  the  nations  to  Christ  is  a  privi- 
lege to  which  every  missionary  is  not  called.  It  canies 
with  it  a  greater  measure  of  attraction  than  any 
other  phase  of  adventure  for  God.  Nationalism  is 
not,  as  Lord  Acton  seemed  to  think,  a  necessary  evil 
to  be  borne,  but  a  divine  emotion  that  will  bear  its 
best  features  as  an  adornment  into  the  Celestial  City 
itself.  Those  who  have  a  share  in  carrying  it  to  the 
1  A  paper  written  by  me  for  The  Outlook,  Feb.  20,  1904. 


THE    RESPONSE  77 

height  of  its  possibilities,  by  putting  Christian  truths 
into  a  normal  relationship  with  it,  have  on  their 
hands  the  most  momentous  of  tasks. 

There  is,  however,  an  humbler  phase  of  evangeliza- 
tion to  which  some  may  be  elected,  that  is  to  say,  the 
evangelization  of  less  closely  organized  life  than  that 
which  we  have  been  considering.  That  it  can  burn 
with  a  flame  of  radiance  unsurpassed  by  other  forms  of 
missionary  endeavour,  the  story  of  Zinzendorf  and  the 
Herrnhuters  bears  ample  testimony.  "In  two  decades,^  j 
the  little  church  of  the  Brethren  called  more  mission-  j 
aries  into  life  than  did  the  whole  of  Protestantism  in  ' 
two  centuries."^ 

First  came  the  vision  of  the  pure-souled  boy  who 
saw  the  length  and  breadth  of  an  effective  life, — "our 
unwearied  labour  shall  go  through  the  world  in  order 
that  we  may  win  hearts  for  Him  who  gave  His  life 
for  our  souls."  His  passion  was  caught  by  his  friends, 
until  each  one  of  his  little  company  could  say,  Ich  habe 
nur  eine  Passion^  unci  die  ist  Er,  nur  Er  ("I  have  but 
one  enthusiasm,  and  it  is  He,  only  He").  The  logic  of 
such  a  life  could  be  none  other  than  it  was.  He  who 
takes  his  stand  by  Christ  and  views  the  world  of  men 
from  this  high  vantage-ground  shares  Christ's  vision ; 
and  he  who  shares  Christ's  vision  shares  His  work. 

1 1722-1742. 

8Warneck,  Missions^  p.  63. 


78  ADVENTURE   FOR   GOD 

The  "Lord's  Shepherds"  had  a  jewel  in  their  pasto- 
ral staff  which  should  never  be  wanting  among  men 
w^ho  claim  to  be  the  ambassadors  of  the  Pastor  pas- 
toriim.  Here  it  is: "The  unity  of  the  Brethren  and 
missions  are  indissolubly  united.  There  will  never  be 
a  unity  of  the  Brethren  without  a  mission  to  the  hea- 
then, nor  a  mission  of  the  Brethren  which  is  not  the 
concern  of  the  Church  as  such."  With  their  motto  on 
their  brow — 

We  will  most  gladly  dare, 

While  here  we  fare — 

they  began  a  career  of  adventure  for  God  that  verges 
on  recklessness.  Their  effort  was  to  seek  out  the  for- 
gotten, the  abandoned,  the  hopeless,  the  uninteresting, 
and  bring  them  in  to  partake  of  the  Feast  of  the  King,^ 
let  the  obstacles  in  the  way  be  what  they  might. 

We  would  seek  labour  there 
Where  labour  is. 

They  "were  persuaded  that  their  call  was  not  to  work 
anywhere  for  national  conversions,  that  is,  for  the 
bringing  of  whole  nations  to  Christ,^"  so  they  went 
with  joy  to  the  humbler  task,  caiTying  comfort  to  the 
ice-bound  shores  of  Greenland  and  the  barren  bleak- 
ness of  Labrador. 
To  such  work  our  Communion  is  called  not  less  than 

1 S.  Luke  xiv,  12,  13.  2  Warneck,  Missions,  p.  QQ. 


THE    RESPONSE  79 

to  that  among  the  nations.  Those  who  count  them- 
selves to  possess  high  privilege  have  the  responsibiHty 
laid  upon  them  of  exhibiting  much  love.  We,  like  her 
of  the  Gospel  story,  can  find  worthy  occupation  in 
bathing  the  Saviour's  feet. 

The  English  Church  has  not  failed  to  do  her  share 
for  obscure  tribes  and  dying  peoples.  In  the  jungles 
of  Africa  she  bears  her  witness  among  the  simple 
negroes.  In  the  islands  of  the  summer  seas  Christian 
hymns  and  prayers  rise  to  God  beneath  the  calm  gaze 
of  the  Southern  Cross  from  the  dark-skinned  converts 
of  Selwyn  and  Patteson.  Further  north  the  shy  Karens 
of  Burma's  hills  flock  to  the  Church's  sheltering  arms 
at  the  call  of  England's  missionaries. 

Our  own  Herrnhuters,  Whipple  and  Hare  and  Rowe, 
with  their  noble  comrades,  are  worthy  to  stand  by  the 
side  of  Zinzendorf  and  his  missionary  band.  Though 
we  shall  never  be  able  to  think  of  our  national  treat- 
ment of  the  North  American  Indian  with  aught  but 
shame  as  we  review  the  past,  there  will  always  be  one 
illuminated  chapter  in  the  otherwise  dark  history. 
"After  my  consecration  as  bishop,  while  the  words, 
Hold  up  the  weak,  heal  the  sick,  bind  up  the  broke?!, 
bring  again  the  outcast,  seek  the  lost,  were  still  ringing 
in  my  ears,  the  venerable  Bishop  Kemper  said  with 
deep  feeling,  'My  young  brother,  do  not  forget  these 
wandering  Indians,  for  they,  too,  can  be  brought  into 


80  ADVENTURE   FOR   GOD 

the  fold  of  Christ.'"  ^  Need  I  say  that  Whipple  did  not 
forget  his  promise? 

Two  years  ago  one  of  our  own  clergy  went  to  the 
succour  of  the  long-haired,  tattooed  savages  who  dwell 
in  the  mountains  of  Luzon,  neglected  and  unloved. 
The  days  went  by  with  no  sign  of  positive  results  re- 
warding his  labours  until  at  last  a  young  lad  sought 
baptism,  the  flrstfruits  of  his  prayers  and  teaching. 
It  is  fitting  that  the  Kingdom  into  which  no  one  can 
enter  unless  he  become  as  a  little  child  should  have 
as  its  earliest  citizen  this  boy.  And  so  once  more  the 
prophet's  words  come  true, — Aiid  a  little  child  shall 
lead  them. 

The  lives  of  men  who  are  drawn  by  the  vision  to 
the  hidden  corners  of  the  world,  to  minister  to  the 
odds  and  ends  of  this  strange  human  race  of  which 
we  are  a  part,  are  not  wasted.  Modern  government 
does  not  neglect  the  obscure;  and  if  school-teachers 
and  officials  of  state  feel  it  a  matter  of  duty,  if  not 
of  positive  inspiration,  to  defend  the  rights,  develop 
the  capacity,  heal  the  wounds  of  the  racially  diseased 
and  weak,  living  in  their  midst,  participating  in  their 
lives,  it  should  be  deemed  no  hardship,  either  by  those 
who  send  or  those  who  are  sent,  to  carry  the  conso- 
lation, the  strength,  the  joy,  the  discipline,  of  the 

1  Bishop  Whipple's  Lights  and  Shadoios  of  a  Long  Episcopate, 
p.  33. 


THE   RESPONSE  81 

Church  into  primitive  homes.  It  is  not  that  the 
Christian  mind  thinks  of  those  who  have  never  had 
the  opportunity  to  know  the  truth  as  it  is  in  Christ 
Jesus  as  being  condemned  to  perdition  by  their  own 
misfortune,  and  that  it  is  our  duty  to  snatch  a  brand 
here  and  there  from  the  burning.  Far  from  it.  Chris- 
tianity is  a  force  and  a  gladness  for  the  days  of  time, 
the  floor  of  the  universe,  the  scions  of  mortahty.  It  is 
their  heritage  and  right.  For  the  self-protection  and 
development  of  those  who  are  born  into  Christian 
conditions,  as  well  as  for  the  present  benefit  of  the 
unenlightened. 

We  would  seek  labour  there 
Where  labour  is. 

We  delight  to  give  our  loved  ones  things  even  of 
ephemeral  worth  as  tokens  of  love,  but  when  we  give 
the  gift  of  Truth  we  bestow  a  lasting  benefit  which, 
while  it  is  at  home  in  time,  is  on  its  throne  in  the 
realms  beyond. 

There  is  a  picture  rosy  with  romance  wherever  the 
strong  meet  the  weak  in  terms  of  love:  the  greater 
the  space  between  the  extremes,  the  more  radiant  the 
glow.  It  is  the  pride  of  our  day  that  philanthropies 
abound.  The  heart  of  every  great  city  throbs  with 
compassion  for  the  prisoner,  the  sick,  the  helpless, 
the  poor.  It  is  not  proximity  in  space  that  deter- 


82  ADVENTURE   FOR   GOD 

mines  our  responsibility  to  the  weak.  Arguments 
hinging  on  distance  are  withering  before  the  inven- 
tive genius  of  the  age.  At  one  time  brick  walls  a  fur- 
long away  shut  off  the  needy  from  the  prosperous  as 
effectively  as  though  each  lived  on  a  different  globe. 
That  day  is  so  far  past  that  now  the  farthest  need 
may  be  laid  any  morning  on  our  breakfast-table,  the 
most  recent  calamity  in  the  most  distant  land  served 
up  to  us  as  our  concern  before  its  immediate  victims 
have  ceased  quivering  under  its  heel.  If  we  are  to  live 
at  all  we  must  live  as  men  who  recognize  the  whole 
world  as  neighbours;  and  oftentimes  our  best  service 
will  be  rendered  to  those  so  far  off,  so  mean,  so  ob- 
scure, that  we  preclude  all  possibility  of  any  return. 
Such  service  is  no  waste  of  wealth,  but  a  delicate  ex- 
pression of  that  sympathy  which  makes  life's  wounds 
bearable.  The  only  way  to  kill  self-pity  is  to  bury  it 
life-deep  in  compassion,  that  it  may  be  smothered  by 
others'  woes.  What  is  the  use  of  wealth,  if  not  to 
benefit  the  poor?  What  is  privilege  for,  if  not  to  place 
at  the  disposal  of  the  unblessed? 

Now  we  that  are  strong  ought  to  hear  the  infirmities 
of  the  weak,  and  not  to  please  ourselves.^ 


"^  Rom.  XV,  1. 


LECTURE   IV 

THE  QUEST 

In  many  strange  adventures  have  I  been  in  this  quest.  And  so 
either  told  other  of  their  adventures. 

IN  the  preface  to  the  Bool:  of  King  Arthur  and 
of  his  Noble  Knights  of  the  Round  Table  Cax- 
ton  says  therein  shall  be  found  "many  joyous  and 
pleasant  histories,  and  noble  and  renowned  acts  of 
humanity,  gentleness  and  chivalry."  Nor  does  he  ex- 
aggerate the  refined  beauty  of  that  masterpiece  of 
knightly  romance.  But  inasmuch  as  the  story  of  mis- 
sions is  another  embodiment  of  the  same  tale,  it  is  not 
less  full  of  romance,  joyousness  and  pleasance.  The 
book  of  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles  is  as  thrilling  a  re- 
cord of  daring  and  achievement  as  you  can  find  in 
human  annals. 

Napoleon  did  not  plan  his  campaigns  with  greater 
care  than  the  Apostles,  if  S.  Paul's  course  is  at  all 
representative,  as  I  beheve  we  are  warranted  in  assum- 
ing. The  Apostle  to  the  nations  was  not  dazzled  by 
the  magnitude  of  his  world-wide  venture.  Like  his 
Master,  his  love  of  men  had  its  roots,  and  grew,  in  love 
for  men.  He  was  not  among  those  whose  grasp  of  the 
general  meant  a  neglect  of  the  particular.  With  a 
heart  big  enough  to  embrace  nations,  he  always  seems 
to  have  had  his  arms  about  the  individual.  Now  it  is 

83 


84  ADVENTURE   FOR   GOD 

a  far-off  convert  who  creeps  into  the  foreground  of 
his  consciousness  to  receive  a  stimulating  message  of 
advice  or  encouragement, — Say  to  ArcMppus^  Take 
heed  to  the  ministry  which  thou  hast  received  in  the 
Lord^  that  thou  fulfil  it}  Or,  again,  more  than  a  score 
rise  up  to  receive  his  greeting,  each  one  distinguished 
by  a  word  of  affection  all  his  own,^ — Mary^  who  he- 
stowed  much  labour  on  us,  Apelles,  approved  in  Christ, 
and  the  rest  of  them.  Every  one  who  once  found  en- 
trance into  the  interest  of  S.  Paul  remained  there  to 
dwell.  Time  and  distance  did  not  obliterate  them. 
Even  in  his  silences  they  could  feel  assured  of  his 
loyalty  to  them.  They  were  as  truly  the  companions 
of  his  inner  life  as  though  they  were  before  him  in 
the  flesh.  They  were  the  joy,  the  anxiety  and  the 
crown  of  his  existence. 

In  his  attention  to  the  poor  he  neither  despised  nor 
neglected  the  rich.  He  was  solicitous  for  hovel  and 
palace  alike. ^  As  we  read  of  his  singular  adventure  in 
Lycaonia,^  among  a  rude  and  barbarous  tribe  whom 
he  tried  to  win  for  Christ,  we  know  how  his  heart 
would  burn  with  sympathy  at  the  story  of  Patteson, 

1  CoL  iv,  17.  '^Rom.  xvi.  scf.  Phil  i,  13. 

*  "The  use  of  the  Lycaonian  language  shows  that  the  worship- 
pers were  not  the  Roman  coloni,  the  aristocracy  of  the  colony, 
but  the  natives,  the  less  educated  and  more  superstitious  part 
of  the  people."  Ramsay's  S.  Paul  the  Traveller  and  Roman  Citi- 
zen, p.  119. 


THE   QUEST  85 

and  the  South  Sea  heroes  or  of  the  Herrnhuters.  The 
passion  of  S.  Paul  is  perhaps  the  most  prominent 
characteristic  of  his  personaHty,  though  I  sometimes 
think  that  it  is  his  balance.  However,  he  had  both  pas- 
sion and  balance  in  a  nicely  determined  partnership. 

I 

It  is  a  tribute  to  his  poise  that  he  did  not  go  about 
battering  down  non-Christian  religions.  Had  he  been 
a  zealot  and  nothing  more,  his  conversion  would  have 
been  the  beginning  of  anti -Jewish  prejudice  and  per- 
secution. Converts,  according  to  common  experience, 
are  unbalanced  extremists.  Instead  of  this,  he  re- 
mains full  of  veneration  for  the  old  order,  magnify- 
ing its  value  at  the  very  moment  that  he  condemns 
its  exaggerations  or  the  misinteipretations  of  its  un- 
enlightened votaries.  He  is  under  orders  from  on  high 
to  proclaim  Christ  for  the  world,  and  the  world  for 
Christ;  but  this  requires  a  process  of  reconstruction 
and  fulfilment  rather  than  one  of  substitution. 

It  is  written  in  the  nature  of  things  that  commen-  \ 
dation  is  antecedent  to  effective  condemnation,  appre- 
ciation to  just  criticism.  Condemnation  is  nothing  but 
an  expression  of  bad  temper,  criticism,  of  outraged 
taste,  if  it  has  not  for  its  end  improvement.  Men  are 
soured  and  irritated  by  it  when  the  spirit  in  which  it 
is  uttered — it   is   always  self-evident — betrays  the 


86  ADVENTURE   FOR   GOD 

fact  that  its  author  is  reposing  in  the  conceited  con- 
viction that  he  is  the  one  person  who  has  a  vision  of 
the  ideal,  or  indeed  any  capacity  for  it.  S.  Paul  takes 
for  granted  that  there  is  both  capacity  and  vision  in 
those  whom  he  addresses,  and  reveals  the  fact  to  them 
by  praising  some  features  of  their  life  which  consti- 
tute a  starting-point  for  better  things.^ 

This  is  true  of  his  method  both  when  he  deals  with 
morals  and  when  he  lays  the  foundation  for  an  un- 
biassed study  of  comparative  religions  by  touching 
with  an  appreciative  hand  the  religions  of  his  own  day 
with  which  he  is  brought  into  close  quarters.  The  good 
qualities  that  are,  form  the  promise  and  foundation 
of  virtues  and  graces  that  are  to  be;  the  religion  that 
is,  being  from  God,  is  the  preparation  and  basis  for 
that  fulfilling  religion  of  which  he  is  an  ambassador. 

What  finer  appreciation  of  Judaism  can  be  found 
than  that  contained  in  his  letters  ?  No  jot  or  tittle  of 
the  law,  its  ritual  or  its  content  is  slighted  or  at- 
tacked by  his  pen  —  only  its  abuse  or  misapplication. 
The  Jewish  Scriptures  are  not  dethroned  from  the 
high  place  they  hold  in  the  regard  of  the  Hebrews ; 

1 1  would  make  my  own  these  words :  "I  have  always  believed 
that  it  is  better  to  stimulate  than  to  correct,  to  fortify  rather 
than  punish,  to  help  rather  than  to  blame.  If  there  is  one  atti- 
tude that  I  fear  and  hate  more  than  another  it  is  the  attitude  of 
the  cynic.  I  believe  with  all  my  soul  in  romance ;  that  is,  in  a 
certain  high-hearted,  eager  dealing  with  life."  Fi-om  a  College 
Window,  in  the  Cornhill  Magazine. 


THE   QUEST  87 

they  become  the  Scriptures  of  the  Christians — for  a 
considerable  period  their  only  Scriptures.  The  old 
Covenant  is  caught  up  into  the  New.  Judaism  is  the 
historic  basis  of  the  Faith. 

But  it  is  not  the  only  foundation  for  Chi-istian 
truth,  though  it  must  always  remain  the  chief  sub- 
structure. It  is  the  representative  pre-Christian  reli- 
gion. Neither  Christ  nor  His  Apostle  made  onslaught 
on  heathen  beliefs ;  the  latter  used  them,  and  he  was 
a  man  who  never  used  a  bad  thing  hoping  therewith 
to  achieve  a  good  end.  When  S.  Paul  is  for  the  first 
time  called  upon  to  preach  to  a  cultured  people  with 
traditional  gods  and  ancient  creed,  as  has  been 
pointed  out  by  every  one  who  has  touched  the  sub- 
ject, he  begins  with  an  appreciation  of  the  substance 
underlying  the  shadow,  the  truth  hidden  in  the 
superstition.  In  other  words,  he  tells  the  Athenians  ^ 
that  their  religion  which  is  symbolized  by  the  altar 
dedicated  to  the  unknown  God  is  a  preparation  for 
Christianity — Whom  ye  ignorantly  worship^  him  de- 
clare I  unto  you.  There  is  inspiration  even  in  the 
writings  of  a  heathen  author — certain  also  of  your 
own  poets  have  said.  For  we  are  also  his  offspring.  In 
the  presence  of  the  record  of  this  incident,  the 
Saviour's  words  float  into  the  memory :  /  came  not  to 
destroy,  hut  to  fulfil. 
^Acts  xvii. 


88  ADVENTURE   FOR   GOD 

The  Jewish  faith  is  not  displaced  from  the  noble 
relationship  which  it  rightly  holds  by  having  at- 
tributed to  it  an  illustrative  character.  It  is  the  pre- 
paratory religion  in  another  sense  than  that  usually 
understood ;  it  is  the  typical  preparatory  religion. 
One  of  its  functions  is  to  declare  to  other  religions, 
even  the  cruder  religions  of  savages,  that  they,  too, 
point  to  and  find  fulfilment  in  Christ.  S.  Paul 
touched  the  outskirts  of  the  pagan  world  in  Lyca- 
onia.^  The  inhabitants  were  children  of  nature  with 
a  thin  veneer  of  Roman  tradition  overlaying  their  in- 
digenous belief.  But  even  here  he  found  common 
ground  for  understanding.  The  living  God,  he  said, 
fixing  upon  the  value  of  natural  religion,  which  made 
heaven,  and  earth,  and  the  sea,  and  all  things  that  are 
therein,  in  times  past  siiffered  all  nations  to  walk  in 
their  own  ways,  nevertheless  left  not  himself  without 
witness,  in  that  he  did  good,  and  gave  us  rain  from 
heaven,  and  fruitful  seasons,  Jilling  our  hearts  with 
food  and  gladness. 

Wherever  the  Christian  teacher  may  go,  to  darkest 
Africa,  to  the  provinces  of  China,  to  the  primitive 
folk  of  the  Luzon  hills,  Christ,  who  is  the  Light  that 
lighteth  every  man  that  cometh  into  the  world,  has 
preceded  him,  and  is  there  to  greet  him.  He  has  laid, 
He  is,  the  foundation  on  which  we  are  to  build.  The 
^Acts  xiv. 


THE   QUEST  89 

fine  old  allegory  of  the  beggar  who  under  a  compas- 
sionate touch  flashes  forth  as  the  Lord,  finds  new  ap- 
plication in  this  connection.  Missionary  work  is  not 
a  doubtful  experiment,  but  a  certain  success.  There  is 
no  ground  that  is  so  barren  that  Christianity  cannot 
take  root  in  some  corner  of  its  soil,  no  field  so  aban- 
doned that  it  is  not  in  at  least  a  slight  degree  pre- 
pared to  receive  the  first  principles  of  the  truth.  As 
surely  as  every  river  in  the  land  ultimately  reaches 
the  sea,  so  surely  the  religion  of  Jesus  Christ  will 
receive  into  itself  those  lesser  faiths  wherein  God 
did  not  leave  Himself  wholly  without  witness.  There 
comes  a  tremendous  enlargement  of  interest  and  a 
full  flood  of  hope  with  the  thought  that  the  first  duty 
of  the  missionary  is  to  find  Christ  rather  than  to  give 
Him  among  those  to  whom  he  is  sent. 

The  chief  unfulfilled  religions  of  our  time  are  those 
of  the  Orient,  where  is  the  home  of  great  nations, 
some  of  them  in  decline,  some  at  the  dawn  of  their 
life's  finest  day.  The  East  at  this  juncture  is  the  cen- 
tre of  attention  because  in  its  contact  with  the  West, 
wherein  have  always  originated  the  largest  movements 
of  history,  lie  the  gravest,  the  most  imperative,  the 
most  interesting  human  problems.  Without  Chris- 
tianity a  solution  is  hopeless.  There  are  here  and  there 
to  be  found  wide  rents  in  the  fabric  of  society,  but 
none  so  stubborn  of  repair  as  that  between  East  and 


90  ADVENTURE   FOR   GOD 

West.  In  Christianity,  its  history,  its  substance,  its 
method,  rests  the  hope — the  sure  hope — of  unity. 

Christianity  is  an  Eastern  reHgion  with  a  successful 
Western  experience.  Its  founder  was  of  Eastern  origin, 
birth,  education  and  history.  He  Hved  and  died  in  a 
country  that  then  as  now  was  the  borderland  between 
East  and  West.  Yet  the  first  thing  that  the  new- 
born rehgion  did  when  it  was  a  toddhng  infant  was 
to  launch  out  boldly  to  conquer  the  West.  It  was  not 
content  until  it  had  ensconced  itself  in  the  very  heart 
of  the  Empire.  The  earliest  duty  which  it  conceived 
to  be  laid  upon  it  was  to  demonstrate  in  practical 
form  that  it  was  universal  in  essence  and  purpose.  It 
took  on  Western  dress  and  spoke  in  a  Western  tongue 
until  the  habit  became  so  much  a  matter  of  course 
that  its  adherents  were  inclined  to  look  upon  Chris- 
tianity as  a  Western  product,  and  the  thoughtless,  for 
the  lack  of  a  better  argument,  urge  against  missions 
in  the  Orient  that  it  is  absurd  to  force  a  Western  re- 
ligion on  an  Eastern  people ! 

There  is  a  beautiful,  but  not  critically  justifiable 
translation  of  a  well-known  passage  in  Zechariah^ 
which  places  Christ  before  us  as  the  Orient.  The  Vul- 
gate reads,  Ecce  vir  oriens  nomen  ejus  ("  Behold  the 
Man  whose  name  is  the  Orient ").  However  untrue  the 
translation  may  be  to  the  context,  it  is  true  to  the 
1  Ch.  vi,  n. 


THE   QUEST  91 

text  ^  and  true  to  the  fact,  —  Christ  is  the  Orient.  The 
father  of  His  immediate  herald  called  Him  the  day- 
spring  from  on  Mgh^ — an  intense  simile  transcending 
the  thought  of  God  as  light,  and  portraying  Him  as 
the  source  whence  light  comes.  The  fact,  then,  that 
Christianity  has  become  Westernized  by  nineteen  cen- 
turies of  experience  is  offset  by  the  fact  that  the  au- 
thor of  Christianity  is  the  Orient,  and  in  taking  Him 
to  the  East  we  take  Him  to  His  own. 

n 

Some  broad  generalizations  made  by  a  Bampton  lec- 
turer^ bring  out  forcibly  the  common  standing-ground 
which  Christianity  has  with  the  two  great  world  re- 
ligions of  Islamism  and  Buddhism.  The  three  foun- 
dation stones  of  religion,  philosophically  viewed,  are 
Dependence,  Fellowship  and  Progress.  Christianity 
has  the  three  in  full  measure.  Mohammedanism  has 
Dependence  as  a  natural  and  indigenous  element,  with 
Fellowship  present,  though  weakly  exhibited.  In  Bud- 
dhism Fellowship  is  the  indigenous  and  most  strongly 
marked  feature,  with  Dependence  and  Progress  both 
playing  a  part,  though  an  undeveloped  part,  in  its 

iThe  same  word  can  be  translated  either  "  Branch  "  or  "Ori- 
ent," though  the  connection  decides  in  favour  of  the  former. 

2  S.  Luke  i,  78. 

3  Bishop  Boyd  Carpenter  in  Permanent  Elements  of  Religion 

(1887). 


92  ADVENTURE   FOR   GOD 

life.  Thus  the  divine  elements  and  the  common  stand- 
ing-ground with  Christianity  in  Islamism  are  Depen- 
dence and  in  some  measure  Fellowship ;  in  Buddhism, 
Fellowship,  w  ith  Dependence  and  Progress  faintly  out- 
lined. In  the  fatalistic  fanaticism  of  Islamism  is  evinced 
a  marvellous  capacity  for  faith ;  in  the  self-commun- 
ings  and  reveries  of  Buddhism,  an  unusual  faculty  for 
worship.  A  recent  writer  ^  says  of  the  latter  faith  : 
"  In  the  high  moral  code  of  Buddhism  we  may  see  a 
preparation  for  Christianity." 

Intelligent  and  balanced  appreciation  of  heathen 
faiths  has  been  growing  steadily.  The  Church  of  Rome, 
in  spite  of  the  inflexibility  of  her  ecclesiastical  system, 
has  been  quick  always  to  interpret  the  popular  mind 
and  develop  cults  suited  to  the  emotions  of  the  masses. 
It  is  one  factor  that  makes  for  success  in  her  career. 
The  angularity  of  our  own  communion  affords  a  strik- 
ing contrast  to  this.  Our  liberality  consists  more  in 
diversity  of  interpretation  than  in  practical  adapta- 
bility. 

In  the  mission  field  until  quite  recently  but  little 
consideration  was  given  to  indigenous  religions.  The 
missionary  went  through  the  East  in  very  much  the 
same  spirit  that  CromwelPs  soldiers  went  through 
some  of  the  English  cathedrals,  with  instruments  of 
destruction  in  hand.  The  study  of  comparative  reli- 
1 G.  B.  Ekanayaka  in  East  and  West. 


THE   QUEST  9S 

gions  was  chiefly  an  academic  amusement.  For  the  pop- 
ular mind  the  appearance  of  Sir  Edwin  Ai-nold's  Light 
of  Asia  (1879)  marked  an  epoch.  Few  good  words 
were  said  of  the  book  by  orthodox  critics.  I  was  told 
by  grave-eyed  men  that  it  was  an  insidious  book, 
undermining  the  very  foundations  of  Christianity,  and 
I  took  their  word,  not  reading  it  for  long  years  only 
to  discover  in  the  end  that  it  was  nothing  worse  than 
a  poetic  exaggeration  of  the  beauty  of  Orientalism. 
It  was  no  more  in  error  than  the  belief  that  God  was 
not  in  any  religion  but  Christianity  —  perhaps  less. 
Its  effect  was  to  rouse  many  to  a  consciousness  that 

though 

The  heathen  in  his  blindness 

Bows  down  to  wood  and  stone, 

he  is  not  wholly  without  a  vision  of  God.  The  new 
thought  of  course  ran  riot  in  some  circles,  blighting 
missionary  interest.  '*If  so  moral  and  beautiful  a  re-  / 
ligion  already  obtains  in  the  East,  why  disturb  the 
natives  with  our  Western  ideas .?  Christianity  does 
not  fit  them.  They  have  an  Eastern  faith  suited  to 
their  minds  and  habits" — the  flimsy  and  en-oneous 
logic  we  are  all  familiar  with.  The  unbalanced  thinker 
with  a  new  and  fascinating  theme  cannot  stop  when 
he  once  gets  going.  Something  of  a  craze  set  in  for 
the  study  of  Oriental  cults,  and  various  defenders  of 
Buddhism  and  Hinduism  came   to   the   fore.    Two 


94  ADVENTURE   FOR   GOD 

books  of  comparatively  recent  date  are  worthy  of 
mention,  The  Soul  of  a  People^  an  imaginative  de- 
scription of  Burmese  life,  and  The  Web  of  Indian 
Lrfef  championing  in  powerful  language  the  faith  of 
India. 

It  is  good  that  the  revulsion  of  feeling  came,  be- 
cause it  brought  with  it  illumination,  and  placed  the 
missionary  cause  on  a  surer  and  more  intelligent  foot- 
ing than  hitherto.  Take  the  single  fact  that  Sir  Ed- 
win Arnold  and  the  rest  were  able  to  see  and  de- 
scribe the  inner  value  of  the  Eastern  religions  to 
which  they  gave  their  attention.  It  bears  testimony  \ 
to  the  interpretative  faculty  of  Christianity.  So  far 
as  I  am  aware  no  one  who  has  not  had  a  Christian  ; 
inheritance  and  training,  or  was  not  steeped  in 
Christian  thought,  has  been  able  to  discern  their 
worth.  It  is  impossible  to  divest  ourselves  of  the 
Christian  view-point  if  we  have  once  been  trained  to 
use  it.  Just  as  it  would  have  been  impossible  for 
any  one  but  a  Christian  to  have  made  the  speech  of 
S.  Paul  at  Athens,  so  no  one  but  persons  of  Christian 
experience  could  have  written  The  Light  of  Asia, 
The  Soul  of  a  People,  or  The  Web  of  Indian  Life.  As 
I  run  over  the  present-day  champions  of  Oriental  cults 
I  find  among  them  none  but  those  who  have  been 

1  By  H.  Fielding  Hall,— a  piece  of  inaccurate  idealization. 

2  By  Margaret  E.  Noble. 


THE   QUEST  95 

permeated  with  Christian  thought, — Colonel  Olcott, 
Mrs.  Besant,^  the  Swami,  Wu  Ting  Fang  (once  a  pro- 
fessing Christian). 

When  I  was  in  Rangoon  I  went  to  see  the  leader  of 
Burmese  Buddhism,  Ananda  Maitriya.  I  found  that 
he  was  a  Scotchman  and  his  name  was  MacGregor.  He 
is  a  man  of  scientific  attainment  who  was  brought  up 
in  Christianity.  Intellectual  difficulties  disturbed  him, 
and  he  embraced  Buddhism  in  Ceylon.  Afterwards  he 
became  pohn-gyee  and  chief  propagandist  in  Ran- 
goon. He  told  me  that  he  purposed  Buddhizing  Amer- 

1  It  is  the  Christian,  not  the  Theosophical  part  of  Mrs.  Besant 
that  says:  "You  must  not  build  the  Church  of  Christ  on  an- 
tiquarian research,  nor  on  the  Higher  Criticism,  nor  on  any 
question  of  the  value  of  a  manuscript ;  you  must  build  Christ's 
Church  on  the  living  Christ,  and  not  on  the  dead  manuscripts, 
otherwise  your  Church  will  crumble  before  the  assaults  of 
scholars  and  antiquarians.  You  should  not  live  in  continual  fear 
lest  one  man  should  take  away  from  you  this  doctrine,  and  an- 
other man  that ;  lest  this  scholar  should  deprive  you  of  one  be- 
lief, and  another  scholar  of  another.  Nay  !  those  things  may  have 
their  place  and  use ;  and  the  greatest  use  of  criticism  seems  to 
me  to  be  not  that  it  establishes  the  facts  of  history,  because 
these  facts  of  history  are  not  very  important  things,  but  that  it 
drives  the  devout  heart  back  on  its  own  experience,  on  the  liv- 
ing experience  of  a  living  Christ,  which  is  the  basis  of  all  true 
religion.  For  rehgion  is  not  based  on  mouldy  manuscripts,  nor 
on  worm-eaten  books;  it  does  not  find  its  sanction  in  the  au- 
thority of  Councils,  nor  in  the  statements  of  tradition.  It  comes 
from  human  experience,  from  the  evolving  relation  of  the  hu- 
man soul  with  God.  And  Christ  is  driving  His  Church  back  up- 
on that,  because  it  has  been  built  on  the  shifting  sand  of  history 
instead  of  on  the  rock  of  human  experience."  Is  Theosophy 
Anti-Christian  ? 


96  ADVENTURE   FOR   GOD 

ica  and  England  after  having  purified  the  ancient 
religion  of  Japan.  In  him  we  have  another  evidence 
of  the  interpretative  power  of  the  Christian  mind. 

It  has  been  urged  as  though  it  were  an  argument 
against  Christ's  claims  that  His  originality  largely 
consisted  in  interpretation,  whereas  it  is  the  opposite. 
The  originality  that  says  wholly  new  things  is  ec- 
centricity ;  the  originality  that  rediscovers  old  things 
sets  the  world  aflame  with  glory  and  moves  all  men. 
It  is  a  joy  to  me,  and  a  new  evidence  that  Christ  is 
the  Universal  Man,  whenever  I  find  in  the  maxims  of 
Confucius  or  the  Vedas  an  approximation  to  Christ's 
teaching.  That  which  inhered  in  Christ  is  character- 
istic of  the  religion  that  bears  His  name.  He  could 
take  a  well-worn  bit  of  Jewish  Scripture  and  make  it 
blaze  like  a  diamond.  Christianity  in  its  relation  to 
other  religions  is  as  the  sunlight  to  a  jewel:  you 
place  the  jewel  in  its  rays  and  the  light  catches  its 
every  point  and  reveals  its  hidden  or  half-developed 
qualities.  The  Scotch  Burman  and  the  English  In- 
dian cannot  be  as  though  they  had  never  been  bathed 
in  the  truth  of  Jesus  Christ  any  more  than  Ananda 
Maitriya  can  cease  to  be  Allan  Bennett  MacGregor, 
or  Sister  Nivedita  of  Ramakrishna-Vivekananda  can 
cease  to  be  Margaret  E.  Noble. 

It  is  the  natural  thing  for  us  to  recognize  that  in 
Jewish  history  and  literature  lies  the  Christian  faith 


THE   QUEST  97 

prior  to  being  unfolded.  The  relationship  has  long 
since  been  worked  out  for  us,  and  it  is  an  easy  task 
to  translate  this  prophecy,  that  psalm,  this  incident 
into  Christian  terms;  but  it  should  not  appear  to  us 
either  forced  or  difficult  to  interpret  other  religions 
similarly.  If  God  made  a  special  revelation  through 
Judaism  He  none  the  less  makes  a  real  revelation 
through  other  non-Christian  religions.  Christianity  is 
the  completion  of  all  that  is  imperfect,  the  illumina- 
tion of  all  that  is  obscure  in  religion,  viewed  broadly 
as  that  which  is  the  outcome  of  man's  search  for  the 
truth.  It  is  only  what  we  should  expect,  then,  that 
Christian  minds  should  prove  to  be  the  ablest  expo- 
nents of  Oriental  beliefs,  that  they  should  surprise  even 
the  life-long  votaries  of  those  beliefs  and  bring  them 
as  pupils  to  their  feet.  If  they  are  ignorant  of  or  dis- 
claim the  source  of  their  illumination,  the  fact  abides 
as  a  tangible  process  easily  traced  and  explained.  The 
play  of  friendly  though  ill-disciplined  Christian  forces 
on  Burmese  Buddhism  has  borne  fruit  not  only  in  a 
revival  locally,  but  in  the  establishment  of  a  mission- 
ary propaganda  claiming  to  have  a  message  to  the 
world.^  Christian  methods  have  been  incorporated  into 

1 "  It  will  be  the  faith  of  the  future  in  that  far  distant  time  when 
all  mankind,  conquered  by  the  Love  it  teaches,  enlightened  by 
the  Truth  it  holds,  shall  dwell  at  last  in  harmony,  in  self-restraint, 
in  mutual  forbearance, — shall  attain  at  last  to  a  true  civiliza- 
tion," &c.  Buddhism,  vol.  i,  no.  1,  page  14. 


98  ADVENTURE   FOR    GOD 

Buddhism,  Chi'istian  generosity  has  awakened  in  Bud- 
dhists a  spirit  of  Hberality.  By  their  own  admission, 
though  not  perhaps  in  the  sense  they  mean,  "the 
activity  of  Christian  missions  has  been  a  most  potent 
factor"  in  this  revivifying  of  their  traditional  faith. 
/  All  this  goes  to  prove  what  Christianity  is — the 
fulfilling  religion.  If  untempered  sympathy  and  a 
little  knowledge  of  Christ  can  do  much,  what  will 
full  knowledge  and  disciplined  sympathy  accomplish  ? 
The  Gospel  stands  as  a  strong  mountain  whose  peak 
is  in  the  heavens,  lifting  into  itself  the  little  hills, 
and  gathering  about  it  as  a  skirt  the  broad  plain  at 
its  feet.  Nor  is  there  a  more  beautiful  spot  in  the 
experience  of  the  Christian  Church  than  where  some 
ancient  religion  is  caught  up  into  its  splendid  height. 
If  the  religion  of  Christ  Jesus  can  never  stoop  the 
head  of  its  absolute  claims,  neither  can  it  ever  raise 
itself  so  as  not  to  touch  and  absorb  the  least  as  well 
as  the  greatest  of  preparatory  and  unfulfilled  creeds. 

Ill 

Supposing  we  were  unfortunate  enough  not  to  know 
that  there  was  affinity  between  non -Christian  beliefs 
and  Christianity,  and  yet  were  convinced  of  the  ab- 
solute claims  of  Christ,  we  would  be  in  an  awkward 
dilemma,  for  experience  declares  that  you  cannot  an- 
nihilate an  indigenous  religion  any  more  than  you 


THE   QUEST  99 

can  blot  out  a  man's  temperament.  The  Judaism  of 
Christianity  is  one  of  the  Church's  strongest  pillars 
—  its  moral  code,  its  ardent  piety,  its  lucid  theology. 

There  are  grounds  for  maintaining  that  the 
Chthonic  ritual  of  the  Greek  religion  belonged  "  to 
the  primitive  Pelasgians,  the  Olympian  to  the  con- 
quering Achaeans."  ^  But  whether  this  conclusion  is 
coiTect  or  not  the  two  cults  both  lived,  the  younger  un- 
obliterated  by  the  older,  though  they  were  unfriendly 
enough  in  their  essence.  "The  formula  of  Olympic 
cults  is  do  ut  des ;  of  Chthonic  rites,  do  ut  aheas.''^  So 
Andrew  Lang: ^  "What  the  religious  instinct  has  once 
grasped  it  does  not,  as  a  rule,  abandon;  but  subordi- 
nates or  disguises  when  it  reaches  higher  ideas." 

There  is  an  interesting  and  curious  illustration  of 
the  principle  to  which  we  are  giving  our  attention  in 
S.  Paul's  experience  among  the  Lycaonians.  "  Where," 
says  Ramsay,  "the  Graeco-Roman  civilization  had 
established  itself,  the  old  religion  survived  as  strongly 
as  ever,  but  the  deities  were  spoken  of  by  Greek,  or 
sometimes  by  Roman,  names,  and  were  identified  with 
the  gods  of  the  more  civilized  races.  This  is  precisely 
what  we  find  at  Lystra:  Zeus  and  Hermes  are  the 
names  of  the  deities  as  translated  into  Greek,  but  the 
old  Lycaonian  gods  are  meant,  and  the  Lycaonian 

1  Greek  Religion^  in  the  Spectator,  April  9,  1904. 

2  Custom  and  Myth. 


100  ADVENTURE   FOR   GOD 

language  was  used,  apparently  because,  in  a  moment 
of  excitement,  it  rose  more  naturally  to  the  lips  of 
the  people  than  the  cultured  Greek  language/' 

The  history  of  the  indigenous  religions  of  the  East 
points  in  the  same  direction.  Before  the  age  of  Con- 
fucius (the  beginning  of  the  sixth  century  before 
Christ)  there  were  gropings  after  God  which  found 
expression  in  much  the  same  way  as  among  other 
primitive  peoples.  Confucius  seems  to  have  deliber- 
ately avoided  conflict  with  the  system  that  obtained. 
With  philosophic  insight  he  saw  that  if  there  was  a 
chance  of  "  substituting  a  morality  for  a  theology "" 
it  was  not  by  precipitating  a  conflict,  but  by  proclaim- 
ing the  positive  principles  of  a  superior  way.  But  it 
would  have  resulted  in  the  same  thing  had  he  taken 
any  other  course.  The  indigenous  faith  would  have 
continued  to  peep  through  the  garments  of  his  moral 
code  as  well  as  through  the  later  innovations  of  Bud- 
dhism, which  began  its  Chinese  career  in  the  second 
century  before  Christ. 

In  Japan  history  repeats  itself.  The  crude  mytho- 
logical nature- worship  known  as  Shinto,  or  "the 
way  of  the  gods,"  held  undisputed  sway  until  the 
middle  of  the  sixth  century  after  Christ,  when  Corea 
contributed  a  missionary  suite  of  Buddhist  monks  to 
the  Japanese.  Shinto  was  a  "puny  fabric"^  perhaps, 
1  Things  Japanese,  p.  415. 


THE   QUEST  101 

but  just  because  it  was  indigenous  the  pulse  of  a  na- 
tion beat  in  it  and  made  it  strong  enough  to  Hve  to 
this  day.  Even  though  Buddhism  conquered  it, 
Shinto,  paradoxical  as  the  statement  is,  remained  un- 
conquered, — a  historic  relic  perhaps,  but  a  historic 
relic  enshrined  deep  in  popular  affection.  "  It  is  the 
established  custom  to  present  infants  at  the  Shinto 
family  temple  one  month  after  birth.  It  is  equally 
customary  to  be  buried  by  the  Buddhist  parish  priest. 
The  inhabitants  of  each  district  contribute  to  the 
festivals  of  both  religions  alike,  without  being  aware 
of  any  inconsistency."  ^  At  first  the  primitive  belief 
had  a  struggle  for  existence,  during  which  it  was 
driven  to  consolidate  its  forces  and  take  the  distin- 
guishing title  which  it  has  since  borne.  There  was  a 
clever  attempt  on  the  part  of  Buddhism  to  absorb 
Shinto  into  the  new  faith,  but  it  was  so  ineffectual 
that  not  only  has  the  ancient  cult  maintained  an  ex- 
istence until  now,  but  since  the  beginning  of  the 
eighteenth  century  it  has  enjoyed  some  measure  of 
rejuvenescence. 

The  history  of  Burmese  religion  follows  along  a  simi- 
lar course.  Burmese  folk-lore  is  more  than  ordinarily 
picturesque  and  poetical,  and  perhaps  that  is  one  ex- 
planation why  devotion  to  the  Nat  continues  to  be  an 
integral  part  of  worship  among  men  and  women  who 
1  Things  Japanese,  p.  405. 


102  ADVENTURE   FOR   GOD 

are  the  most  loyal  Buddhists  in  the  world.  There  are 
two  species  of  Nats, — on  the  one  hand  inhabitants  of 
the  six  inferior  heavens  which  contain  rewards  for 
good  people  after  death;  on  the  other,  "spirits  of  na- 
ture, fairies,  elves,  gnomes,  kelpies,  kobolds,  pixies, 
whatever  names  they  have  received  in  other  countries."^ 
What  can  more  fully  illustrate  the  indelibility  of  in- 
digenous religion  than  the  following  excerpt?^  "The 
worship  of  Nats,  of  the  spirits,  has  nothing  to  do  with 
Buddhism,  and  is  denounced  by  all  the  more  earnest 
of  pyin-sin  as  being  heretical  and  antagonistic  to  the 
teachings  of  the  Lord  Buddha.  The  late  King  Min- 
dohn,  who  was  a  true  defender  of  the  faith  and  pos- 
sessed of  a  deeper  knowledge  of  the  Pali  texts  than 
many  of  the  members  of  the  Assembly  of  the  Perfect, 
fulminated  an  edict  against  the  reverence  paid  to  the 
Nats,  and  ordered  its  discontinuance  under  severe  pen- 
alties; but  the  worship  was  never  really  stopped,  and 
under  King  Thebaw's  erratic  rule  flourished  more 
than  ever."^ 

1  The  Burman,  his  Life  and  Notions,  by  Shway  Yoe,  a  book 
worth  reading  by  those  who  desire  to  get  a  true  view  of  the 
Burmese  and  their  country. 

2Jbid.,  p.  230. 

3  Cf.  Bishop  Coplestone  in  the  Report  on  the  Census  of  Burma 
(1881).  "The  Burmans  frequently  make  offerings  to  Nats,  and 
regard  the  spirit  world  with  an  awe  not  called  for  by  the  creed 
of  Buddha.  The  belief  in  Nats  has  remained,  underlying  their 
thoughts  and  religion  ever  since  they  were  converted  to  Bud- 


THE   QUEST  103 

In  the  first  number  of  Buddhism  ^  an  apology  is  made 
for  the  continuance  of  the  old  geniolatry  coterminous 
with  the  later  religion.  Here  is  the  explanation.  That 
which  "religious  instinct  has  once  formulated  or  ac- 
cepted as  true,  it  does  not,  as  a  rule,  abandon  at  the 
incoming  of  new  ideas  and  ideals,  but  rather  tends  to 
incorporate  them,  to  subordinate  or  transform  them 
in  accordance  with  the  old  ideas.  .  .  .  Wherever  Bud- 
dhism has  gone,  we  often  hear  it  said  it  has  never  sup- 
planted the  religion  it  found,  the  indigenous  religion. 
Yet  the  people  among  whom  it  has  gone  acknowledge 
freely  their  adherence  to  Buddhism,  and  in  almost  the 
same  breath  own  allegiance  to  some  more  ancient 
cultus.  So  in  Thibet  under  Buddhism  are  Shamanistic 
beliefs;  in  China,  Confucianism  and  Taoism  go  hand 
in  hand  with  Buddhism ;  in  Japan,  Shintoism  has  wel- 
comed Confucianism  and  Buddhism;  in  Ceylon,  Hin- 
duism is  said  to  have  con'upted  Buddhism;  and  in 
Burma  and  Siam  Nat-worship  is  found  with  Bud- 
dhism." The  interesting  thing  to  note  is  that  the  old 
religion  still  retains  under  Buddhistic  supremacy  its 
peculiar  character,  even  though  it  may  be  in  essence 
incompatible  with  Buddhistic  principles.  Had  Bud- 
dhism been  less  politic  and  fought  with  the  older  cults 

dhism,  a  relic  of  the  ancient  cult  which  is  still  preserved  intact 
among  the  wilder  Karens,  Chins  and  other  hill  races." 
1  Pages  83,  88. 


104  ADVENTURE   FOR   GOD 

for  exclusive  rights,  the  issue,  it  is  fair  to  conclude, 
would  have  been  the  same.  That  it  has  aspired  to  ab- 
solutism, its  fruitless  attempt  to  absorb  Shinto  in 
Japan  bears  testimony.  It  seems  to  recognize  its  limi- 
tations. By  its  own  admission  it  is  not  a  fulfilling  reli- 
gion, but  a  supplementary  one,  whose  features  are  so 
plastic  as  to  be  easily  marred  or  mended  by  the  reli- 
gions with  which  it  keeps  company,  and  which  continue 
side  by  side  with  it  as  distinctive  religions. 

The  history  of  the  relationship  to  other  beliefs  of 
Christianity  runs  parallel  for  a  short  distance  with 
the  experience  of  Buddhism.  The  truth  as  revealed  in 
Jesus  Christ  has  not  succeeded,  where  it  has  tried,  in 
obliterating  all  the  distinctive  characteristics  of  the 
heathen  religions  with  which  it  has  been  thrown  into 
contact.  Wherever  there  has  been  pitched  battle,  as 
for  instance  with  later  Judaism^  or  with  Islamism, 
the  result  has  been  the  confirmation,  the  dignifying 
and  the  further  alienation  of  the  non-Christian  be- 
lief. Christianity,  withal  that  it  is  the  universal  and 
absolute  religion,  is  not  strong  enough  to  erase  the 
handwriting  of  God  as  seen  in  the  primitive  creeds 
and  natural  religion  of  the  various  divisions  of  the 
human  family. 

1  Shylock  is  typical  of  the  Jew  for  whom  the  Christian  Church 
is  at  least  in  some  measure  responsible,  — the  creation  of  intol- 
erance and  persecution. 


THE   QUEST  105 

IV 

The  parting  of  the  ways  comes  with  the  absohite 
claims  of  Christ  and  the  Church's  consciousness  of 
world-wide,  time-long  mission.  Conviction  comes  be- 
fore toleration.  We  can  afford  to  be  tolerant  because 
we  know  beyond  perad venture  just  where  we  stand. 
There  are  two  kinds  of  toleration :  one  the  toleration 
that  originates  in  weakness,  the  other  that  which  ori- 
ginates in  strength.  The  attempt  to  make  Christ  a 
local  celebrity,  and  to  welcome  into  His  gallery  Gau- 
tama and  Confucius  as  peers,  is  the  toleration  of  weak- 
ness. To  put  the  name  of  Zoroaster  and  the  Sibyl  in 
a  window  of  Westminster  Abbey  in  company  with  the 
prophets,  as  being  with  them  heralds  of  the  dawn,  is 
the  toleration  of  strength.  The  motto  of  Christianity 
is  not  "Live,  and  let  live,"  but  /  came  that  they  may 
have  life,  and  may  have  it  abundantly}  Christianity 
is  to  other  religions  what,  for  instance,  the  most  ad- 
vanced science  always  is  to  the  science  of  the  past, 
adding  to  what  was  said  to  them  of  old  time,  words 
which  not  merely  supplement,  but  complete.  She  is 
organically  related  to  all  the  vast  reaches  of  the 
world's  yesterdays,  carrying  in  her  hand  all  history, 
inviting  into  her  confidence  all  religions,  taking  un- 
der her  guardianship  all  humanity.  It  is  insufficient 

1>S.  John-x.,  10. 


106  ADVENTURE   FOR   GOD 

to  say  that  nothing  pertaining  to  life  fails  to  be  of 
interest  to  her;  rather  is  it  that  everything  touching 
man  is  her  duty.  Everywhere  the  world  is  waiting  for 
her  fulfilling  activity. 

The  absolute  claims  of  Christ  are  unmistakably 
written  in  the  original  Christian  documents.  They  are 
as  clear  as  a  bugle-note,  incapable  of  double  meaning. 
Before  them,  groping  gives  place  to  certainty,  and 
man  stands  forever  with  his  feet  bathed  in  the  dawn. 
Prophets,  moralists,  philosophers,  statesmen,  in  earlier 
days  shed  their  single  ray  of  light  on  the  tangle  of 
human  problems,  never  claiming  to  point  out  the 
whole  way,  the  complete  truth,  nor  to  possess  the 
fulness  of  life ;  never  calling  attention  to  themselves. 
Christ  alone  makes  this  astounding  claim;  He  only 
calls  attention  to  Himself  as  the  key  to  the  whole  of 
life's  mystery:  /  am  the  way,  and  the  truth,  and 
the  life:  no  one  coineth  unto  the  Father,  hut  hy  me} 
If  this  were  the  only  saying  of  the  sort  we  would  have 
reason,  perhaps,  to  doubt  its  authenticity,  and  would 
be  less  intolerant  of  placing  Christ  in  the  Pantheon. 
But  such  assertions  are  of  the  very  texture  of  the  re- 
cord of  Christ's  life;  not  in  S.  John's  Gospel  alone,  but 
impartially  in  all  alike  they  weave  their  sturdy  threads. 
I  have  quoted  this  text  first  as  gathering  up  in  one 
regnant,  conclusive  sentence  that  which  He  scatters 
1 S.  John  xiv,  6. 


I 


THE   QUEST  107 

profusely  up  and  down  the  pathway  of  His  instruc- 
tion. If  therefore  the  Son  shall  make  you  free,  ye  shall 
he  free  indeed}  I  am  the  bread  of  Vfe:  he  that  cometh 
to  me  shall  never  hunger ;  he  that  helieveth  on  me  shall 
never  thirst.^  Peace  I  leave  with  you,  my  peace  I  give 
unto  you:  not  as  the  world  giveth,  give  I  unto  you.  Let 
not  your  heart  he  troubled,  neither  let  it  be  afraid.^  Come 
unto  me,  all  ye  that  labour  and  are  heavy  laden,  and  I 
will  give  you  rest}  There  are  other  sayings — mys- 
terious, terrible,  obscure — which  if  they  do  nothing 
else  mark  out  the  exclusive  character  of  His  claims. 
They  seem  to  me  that  kind  of  hyperbole  which  hu- 
man minds  need  to  startle  them  into  the  truth.  All  that 
ever  came  before  me  are  thieves  and  robbers}  If  any 
man  come  to  me,  and  hate  not  his  father,  and  mother,  and 
wife,  and  children,  and  brethren,  and  sisters,  yea,  and 
his  own  life  also,  he  cannot  be  my  disciple}  All  things 
are  delivered  unto  me  qfniy  Father:  no  man  hnoweth 
the  Son,  bid  the  Father:  neither  knoweth  any  man  the 
Father,  save  the  Son,  and  he  to  whomsoever  the  Son 
will  reveal  him}  Add  to  these  representative  pas- 

1 S.  John  viii,  36.  2  s.  John  vi,  33.  3  ^.  John  xiv,  27. 

4  S.  Matt,  xi,  28.  5  s^  John  x,  8.  6  ^.  2yt<A;e  xiv,  26. 

7^.  Matt,  xi,  27;  S.  Luke  x,  22.  Cf.  note  H,  p.  552  of  Liddon's 
Bampton  Lectures  (ninth  edition).  Dr.  Vance  Smith  is  "natu- 
rally embarrassed  by  our  Lord's  solemn  words.  'The  verse,'  he 
says,  '  in  both  evangelists  interrupts  the  train  of  the  Gospel,  and 
looks  strangely  out  of  place,  though  it  would  have  been  per- 
fectly suitable  to  John.  ...  A  singular  verse, '  he  exclaims,  in  a 


108  ADVENTURE   FOR   GOD 

sages  the  fact  that  Christ's  self-chosen  name  was  "The 
Son  of  man," ^ — which,  whatever  further  significance 
it  may  bear,  is  a  claim  to  universahty  and  a  quiet  de- 
chnation  of  local  or  merely  national  Hmitations, — and 
an  impregnable  position  for  His  unique  relation  to 
life  is  established  so  far  as  documents  are  concerned. 
Draw  the  absolute  threads  and  you  have  not  even  a 
man  left — only  a  mutilated  and  useless  fragment. 

A  king  once  ordered  a  royal  robe  to  surpass  all  in 
the  world.  (I  am  answering  in  allegory  those  who  out 
of  consideration  for  Oriental  religions  and  under  the 
spell  of  their  beauty  would  minimize  Christ's  claims.) 
It  came,  a  thing  of  glory, — gold  and  scarlet  and  pur- 
ple on  a  constant  background  of  black.  "Splendid," 
he  exclaimed,  "but  make  it  more  splendid  by  denud- 
ing it  of  all  gloom.  Draw  the  black  threads."  Obedient 
to  his  behest,  his  servants  wrought  the  work  of  de- 
struction, and  it  came  back  to  him  a  tangled  mass 
without  form,  incapable  of  covering  the  nakedness  of 
a  beggar,  much  less  of  adorning  the  shoulders  of  a 
king-  And  so  the  only  man^  brave  enough  to  offer  a 

later  passage,  'which  looks  as  if  by  some  chance  it  had  been 
transferred  from  the  Fourth  Gospel.'  Yet  there  it  is,  in  the  Syn- 
optists." 

1  Who  but  One  who  held  in  His  hand  the  sceptre  of  final  au- 
thority would  command  His  disciples  to  go  to  "all  nations,"  and 
affirm  that  He  would  be  with  His  followers  even  unto  the  end  of 
the  world?  (S.  Matt,  xxviii,  19,  20.) 

2  Renan,  Vie  de  Jesus, 


THE   QUEST  109 

reconstructed  Christ  after  destroying  His  absolute 
claims  offers  us  what? — a  book  that  is  dying,  and  in 
a  few  years  will  be  dead.  And  of  all  worthless  things 
nothing  is  more  worthless  than  a  dead  book. 

Fortunately  Christianity  is  not  dependent  solely 
upon  documents  for  the  establishment  of  its  right  to 
throw  its  arms  about  all  peoples  and  nations.  It  has 
that  indisputable  testimony  known  as  experience 
which  at  once  declares  the  character  of  its  destiny  and 
the  method  of  working  it  out.  From  the  first  it  ap- 
plies itself  to  its  task  of  conquering  by  absorption 
and  fulfilment.  Other  religions  influence,  and  are  in- 
fluenced by,  their  predecessors  or  antagonists;  Chris- 
tianity alone  merges  their  best  elements  into  herself 
until  they  disappear  not  in  death,  but  into  life.  She 
moves  the  beggar  from  his  hovel  into  her  palace, 
where  Buddhism  would  let  the  beggar  live  on  in 
deepening  degradation  by  the  side  of  Gautama's  man- 
sion. 

It  is  in  my  judgement  the  strongest  claim  for  the 
imperial  aspect  of  the  Church's  polity  that  it  came 
from  the  Roman  religion  of  the  day,  which  was  na- 
tionalism. Gibbon  says  that  "  the  ruin  of  Paganism, 
in  the  age  of  Theodosius  (a.d.  378-395),  is  perhaps 
the  only  example  of  the  total  extirpation  of  any 
ancient  and  popular  superstition."^  His  term  is 
1  Decline  and  Fall  of  the  Roman  Emjnre,  ch.  xxviii. 


110  ADVENTURE   FOR   GOD 

wrong.  For  "extirpation"  read  "absorption."  The  ac- 
cidents were  destroyed,  the  substance  was  used.  Not 
abvays  did  the  Church  interpret  aright  her  relation 
to  pagan  behef,  not  always  did  she  fight  with  spirit- 
ual weapons ;  but  the  higher  principle  prevailed  in 
the  end,  and  the  process  of  fulfilment  did  not  flag. 
The  basilica  became  a  Christian  temple,  the  weekly 
memorial  of  the  Resurrection  to  this  day  bears  in 
its  name  the  mark  of  nature- worship.  "The  senti- 
ment that  in  the  heathen  world  had  rallied  about  the 
changes  of  the  seasons,  or  had  found  in  the  Eleusi- 
nian  or  other  Mysteries  a  religious  expression,  gained 
in  the  observance  of  Easter  a  point  of  contact,  by 
which  the  transition  could  be  made  to  the  Christian 
ritual.  .  .  .  The  life  of  nature  constitutes  a  tangible 
basis  for  Christian  hope,  while  the  spiritual  resurrec- 
tion glorifies  and  consecrates  the  external  order,  as 
though  it  were  designed  and  adapted  for  the  further- 
ance of  man  as  a  spiritual  being."  ^  The  same  author 
sums  up  the  whole  thought  thus :  "  The  Church 
was  now  beginning  to  assert,  in  emphatic  ways  of 
her  own,  the  neglected  truth  that  in  the  substance 
of  the  visible  creation  there  was  some  kinship  with 
Deity,  as  well  as  in  the  spirit  and  reason  of  man.  In 
this  way  Neoplatonism  passed  over  into  the  Catholic 

1  Allen's  Christian  Institutions,  pp.  467  ff.  The  whole  chapter 
bears  on  this  thought. 


THE   QUEST  111 

Church  and  became  the  inspiring  principle  of  its 
ritual.  Rome  had  bestowed  upon  the  Church  her  gift 
of  organization  and  administration  ;  Greece  had  lent 
her  philosophy  and  intellectual  culture ;  Egypt,  with 
Syria,  came  last,  and  furnished  the  motive  of  the 
cultus  or  worship,  by  whose  agency  the  last  vestiges 
of  heathenism  were  overcome."^  The  glory  and  honour 
of  the  nations  are  thus  brought  into  the  City  of  God. 
We  find  that  early  in  the  annals  of  Christendom 
other  religions  than  Judaism  were  recognized  as  con- 
tributing their  best  elements  to  the  Church  of  Christ, 
and  so  are  exhibited  as  having  a  preparatory  function 
leading  directly  into  Christianity.  Paganism  attacked 
Christianity  and  strove  for  its  annihilation.  However 
erratic  Christianity  was,  on  the  other  hand,  in  her 
method  of  dealing  with  paganism,  however  short  of 
her  ideal  as  the  fulfilling  religion,  "apostasy,  weakness 
and  sin  have  had  no  power  to  destroy  the  imperish- 
able strength  of  Christianity.  It  became  secularized, 
yet  it  still  remained  a  leaven,  to  leaven  the  whole 
world."  2 

The  voice  of  history  adds  its  witness  to  that  of  the 
original  documents  of  Christianity,  testifying  to  its 


1  Allen's  Christian  Institutions,  p.  458. 

2Sohm's  Outlines  of  Church  History,  p.  21.  Cf.  pp.  27  ff.  for  a 
survey  of  the  relation  of  Gnosticism  to  Christianity,  and  the 
contribution  from  paganism  to  the  Church  of  mysticism. 


112  ADVENTURE   FOR   GOD 

absolute  claims, — claims  worked  out  by  a  process  of 
fulfilment.  It  has  been  reserved  for  us  of  later  genera- 
tions to  see  the  futility  of  the  use  of  force  against 
conviction  whether  or  not  it  be  exerted  in  the  name 
of  Christ.  As  we  look  back  we  discern  how  Truth 
won  in  the  might  of  its  sympathy  and  not  in  the 
power  of  the  sword,  by  absorption  of  that  which  was 
worthy,  rather  than  by  iconoclastic  violence  against 
deficiencies  and  distortions. 


An  absolute  claim  demands  an  absolute  response.  He 
who  has  manifested  Himself  as  the  controller  of  men 
throughout  the  mazes  of  history  can  be  trusted  by 
the  individual  to  take  care  of  His  own  particular  de- 
stiny. The  whole  man  is  asked  for,  and  the  whole  man 
must  respond.  With  the  growth  of  implicit  trust  in 
the  children  of  the  Church,  there  will  revive  the  zeal 
of  Apostolic  days  to  make  bold  adventure  for  God  to 
earth's  remotest  bounds.  Until  this  is  done  with  a 
more  generous  offering  of  the  best  men  to  the  farthest 
and  hardest  work,  and  a  more  equable  distribution  of 
the  Church's  benefactions,  there  will  be  halting  theo- 
logy and  clouded  glory  in  Christendom.  Wonderful  as 
Christ's  claims  are,  without  testing  them  in  the  cru- 
cible of  human  experience,  where  all  nations  and  peo- 
ples and  tongues,  where  East  and  West,  mingle  their 


THE   QUEST  113 

elements  for  the  universal  good,  we  can  have  no 
grand  conviction  that  they  are  true.  It  is  easy  to  see 
how  strong  missionary  effort,  which  realized  its  pur- 
pose among  the  peoples  of  Asia  and  the  tribes  of 
Africa,  would  come  back  to  Christianized  lands  in  the 
form  of  new  grounds  for  belief.  There  are  hosts  of 
honest  men  who  are  waiting  to  be  convinced  of  that 
which  they  would  fain  accept,  namely,  that  Christ  is 
indeed  the  Monarch  of  men  and  that  we  are  safe  in 
surrendering  our  best  to  His  keeping.  The  unwon 
world  is  ripe  and  ready  to  be  garnered.  Two  years  ago 
at  this  time  I  was  in  the  capital  of  Formosa.  The 
Japanese  pastor  asked  me  to  baptize  three  persons 
who  were  asking  admission  to  fellowship  with  Christ : 
an  aged  samurai^  who  had  once  been  a  bitter  antago- 
nist of  the  Church,  a  young  surgeon  in  the  army,  and 
a  lad  of  ten.  Their  names  were  selected  with  an  im- 
aginative insight  that  was  rarely  delicate  and  beau- 
tiful. The  aged  knight,  whose  weapons  had  for  a  sea- 
son been  against,  not  for,  the  faith,  became  Simeon  — 

Lord,  now  lettest  thou  thy  servant  depart  in  peace,  according 

to  thy  word; 
For  mine  eyes  have  seen  thy  salvation; 

the  soldier  doctor  became  Cornelius;  and  the  boy, 
presented  by  his  father,  who  stood  behind  him,  was 
Isaac.  Old   age,    virile    manhood  and    sunny   youth 


114  ADVENTURE   FOR   GOD 

stretched  out  their  hands  to  God  and  were  found  by 
Him.  As  in  a  parable  they  pointed  to  the  dawning 
day.  Beheve  me,  it  is  no  ordinary  privilege  to  be  al- 
lowed to  stand  on  the  mountain  top  and  watch  the 
earliest  rays  catch  the  highest  peaks,  the  sure  pro- 
mise that  the  valleys  erelong  will  be  golden  with  the 
sun's  glory.  As  yet  we  of  the  West  have  but  little  un- 
derstanding of  them  of  the  East.  But  Christ,  who  is 
the  Orient,  is  the  unifying  force  who  is  drawing  to- 
gether inch  by  inch  the  severed  edges. 

Oh,  East  is  East,  and  West  is  West,  and  never  the  twain  shall 

meet, 
Till  Earth  and  Sky  stand  presently  at  God's  great  Judgement 

Seat; 
But  there  is  neither  East  nor  West,  Border,  nor  Breed,  nor 

Birth, 
When  two  strong  men  stand  face  to  face,  thd  they  come  from 

the  ends  of  the  earth! 


LECTURE  V 

THE  EQUIPMENT 

Sir,  said  the  king  unto  Sir  Galahad,  here  is  a  great  marvel 
as  ever  I  saw,  and  right  good  knights  have  assayed  and  failed. 
Sir,  said  Sir  Galahad,  that  is  no  marvel,  for  this  adventure 
is  not  theirs,  but  mine,  and  for  the  surety  of  this  sword  I 
brought  none  with  me;  for  here  by  my  side  hangeth  the  scab- 
bard. And  anon  he  laid  his  hand  on  the  sword,  and  lightly 
drew  it  out  of  the  stone,  and  put  it  ifi  the  sheath  and  said 
unto  the  king,  Now  it  goeth  better  than  it  did  aforehand.  Sir, 
said  the  king,  a  shield  God  shall  seiid  you. 

IT  is  an  apparent  inversion  to  speak  of  work  first 
and  equipment  afterwards.  A  moment's  reflection, 
however,  will  convince  you  that  true  preparation  is 
that  which  is  the  outcome  of  knowledge  of  the  thing 
to  be  done.  Conventional  preparation  is  not  free  from 
the  likelihood  of  missing  the  mark.  The  sword  and 
armour  of  Saul  with  which  David  was  girt  were  laid 
aside  for  an  equipment  adapted  to  the  task  as  he  had 
worked  the  problem  out  by  a  study  of  conditions. 
Formal  preparation  yielded  place  to  intelligent  pre- 
paration. 

In  speaking  of  the  missionary's  equipment,  I  am  go- 
ing to  set  a  high  ideal  that  we  may  aspire  each  to 
have  an  "Excalibur"  and  a  white  shield  as  fine  as 
Galahad's.  Ideals  sanctify  the  actual.  The  Church  is 
holy  because  her  ideal  is  holy:  likewise  the  nation. 

115 


116  ADVENTURE   FOR   GOD 

We  cannot  afford  to  be  negligent  of  methods  or  wea- 
pons. Christ  looked  to  His  armour  in  the  forecast  of 
His  vocation  in  the  wilderness,  and  like  David  dis- 
carded that  which  was  unworthy.  We,  then,  must  look 
to  ours. 

Obvious  features  of  equipment  I  shall  pass  by,  not 
that  they  are  unimportant,  but  because  they  are  al- 
ways being  pressed  on  your  attention, — faith,  convic- 
tion, knowledge,  tolerance,  courage,  sympathy.  Let  us 
confine  ourselves  to  four  matters  that  are  not  always 
given  the  prominence  they  deserve, — the  cultivation 
(1)  of  the  imagination,  (2)  of  the  social  instinct, 
(3)  of  the  spirit  of  patriotism,  (4)  of  the  spirit  of 
moral  adventure. 

I 

A  TRAINED  imagination  added  to  a  disciplined  char- 
acter forms  a  powerful  and  winsome  combination. 
There  is  a  healthy  glow  shed  upon  life  by  a  cultivated 
imagination  which  lends  charm  and  potency  to  all  the 
activities  of  the  personality  possessing  it.  The  imagi- 
nation is  one  of  the  most  important  faculties  we  enjoy. 
It  is  the  natural  basis  of  the  spiritual  quality  of  faith. 
Undisciplined  imagination  expresses  itself  in  credulity 
and  superstition;  starved  imagination,  in  heaviness 
and  scepticism;  balanced  imagination,  in  buoyant 
trust  and  simple  faith.  One  of  the  most  conspicuous 


THE   EQUIPMENT  117 

characteristics  of  the  Jewish  prophets  is  their  imagi- 
native power  that  enabled  them  to  forecast  in  radiant 
language  things  that  might  be.  Thej  saw  the  state  of 
the  case  always  from  a  high  elevation.  How  beautiful 
upon  the  mountains  are  the  feet  of  him  that  hringeth 
good  tidings,  that  puhlisheth  peace  !^  Why  upon  the 
mountains.? — why  not  from  the  ways  of  men.^^  Because 
they  must  "catch  the  sunlight  on  the  hilltops  ere  they 
speak  to  the  dwellers  in  the  plain."  ^  You  must  live 
a  life  above  men  before  you  will  be  capable  of  living 
an  influential  life  with  men.  A  view  of  the  ideal  is 
antecedent  to  a  view  of  the  actual.  O  Zion,  that  hring- 
est  good  tidings,  get  thee  up  into  the  high  mountain} 
Before  the  dwellers  upon  the  plain  can  be  moved,  the 
messenger  must  bathe  his  message  in  an  altitude  as 
near  heaven  as  he  can  rise  to. 

The  fragmentary  glimpse  in  Scripture  of  our  Lord's 
mode  of  life  and  instruction  reveals  a  nicety  of 
imaginative  cultivation  that  is  without  parallel.  He, 
like  the  prophets,  sought  the  mountain  tops  before 
He  walked  the  plains.  "As  one  reads  the  biography 
of  Jesus,  one  cannot  fail  to  be  struck  with  the  effect 
that  seems  to  have  been  exercised  on  His  mind  and 
nature  by  the  wide  prospect  from  a  lofty  elevation. 
Try  to  cut  out  the  mountain  scenes  from  His  life. 

1  Is.  lii,  7. 

^MaXhQSon's  Leaves  for  Quiet  Hours,  pp.  60-62.  ^Is.  xl,  9. 


118  ADVENTURE   FOR  GOD 

How  much  poorer  would  the  Gospels  be."^  In  the 
story  of  the  typical  temptation  ^  we  clearly  have  a 
piece  of  autobiographical  naiTative.  It  is  as  powerful 
a  piece  of  imaginative  literature  as  exists,  lifting  up 
ordinary  temptations  into  the  inner  recesses  of  ro- 
mance. Such  a  passage  as  that  describing  the  temp- 
tation of  the  mountain  top  presses  "on  us  the  idea 
that  a  notable  side  of  the  character  of  Jesus  lay  in 
His  poetic  and  imaginative  susceptibility  to  the 
influences  of  natural  scenery.  The  susceptibility  did 
not  take  the  form  merely  of  a  liking  for  the  pictur- 
esque, which  seems  to  be  rather  a  fashionable  idol  of 
the  modern  mind  than  a  deep-seated  craving  of 
the  human  spirit.  It  was  the  suggestiveness  of  a  wide 
prospect,  the  stimulation  of  the  mind  accompanying 
the  outlook  from  a  point  of  vantage,  which  moved 
the  nature  of  Jesus,  and  was  probably  a  strong  in- 
fluence in  determining  his  education."  ^ 

Perhaps  nowhere  does  the  imaginative  power  of 
Christ  manifest  itself  more  than  in  His  mode  of 
teaching.  He  is  the  author  of  the  parable,  which  is 
something  quite  distinct  from  the  allegory  or  the 
fable.  It  is  the  height  of  the  art  of  illustrative  story- 
telling in  which  deep  principles  are  inculcated  by  and 
embodied  in  simple,  unadorned  narratives  taken  from 

1  Ramsay's  Education  of  Christy  pp.  37,  38. 

2  S.  Matt.  iv.  3  Education  of  Christ,  p.  40. 


THE   EQUIPMENT  119 

the  common  affairs  of  life.  Each  parable  suggests 
manifold  truths,  but  it  attempts  to  drive  home  only 
one.  So  supreme  an  imaginative  art  is  that  of  the 
parable  that  very  few  men  dare  to  attempt  it.  "Christ 
talked  in  parables,"  said  Moody,  whose  power  to  reach 
the  masses  has  been  unsurpassed  in  our  generation. 
"Oh,  how  I  wish  I  could  talk  in  parables!  I  would  if 
I  knew  enough."  No  preacher  would  be  wasting  time 
if  he  were  to  study  the  structure  and  substance  of  the 
parable  and  make  efforts  in  private  to  speak  its 
mystic  tongue,  even  though  he  never  composed  one 
worthy  of  seeing  the  daylight. 

Another  indication  of  Christ's  imaginative  power  is 
found  in  the  idea  that  some  people  have  that  He  did 
not  teach  theology.  The  theology  is  there  in  his  con- 
versation and  in  His  public  utterances,  but  it  is 
theology  that  has  caught  the  glow  on  the  hilltops 
and  melted  into  poetry. 

In  the  case  of  S.  Paul  ^  we  find  a  philosophic  nature 
breaking  into  song  because  due  attention  was  given 
to  imagination  for  the  sake  of  faith.  His  colouring  is 
rich  always,  but  sometimes  it  excels  itself  In  his 
marvellous  burial  sermon  over  the  dead  in  Christ  of 
all  times  and  nations  ^  you  are  carried  into  the  farm- 
land, and  see  at  one  moment  the  scattering  of  the 

1  He  seems  to  have  been  a  reader  of  poetry.  Cf.  Acts  xvii,  28. 
2 1  Cor.  XV. 


120  ADVENTURE   FOR   GOD 

seed,  at  the  next  the  tossing  tassels  of  the  golden 
grain.  What  bald  logic  of  resurrection  ever  had  lan- 
guage half  as  convincing  as  this!  At  another  time 
night  and  day  speak  powerfully  to  the  human  will 
and  entice  it  to  play  its  part  where  mere  command- 
ment would  repel.^  Man  needs  radiant  armour,  and 
he  gets  it  from  S.  Paul's  hand.^  Truth,  righteousness, 
faith  and  the  rest  of  the  grand  series  look  as  full  of 
promise  as  the  new-born  lily-bud  with  the  kiss  of  the 
morning  dew  still  on  its  lips. 

S.  Peter's  imaginative  gift  was  distinctive.  His  pe- 
culiarly sensitive  and  impulsive  nature  reveals  a  half- 
discipHned  imagination  that  on  the  one  hand  brought 
him  trouble,  and  on  the  other  hand  took  flight  with 
him  into  regions  of  faith  whither  his  companions 
could  scarcely  follow.  The  angels  hovered  about  the 
threshold  of  his  consciousness  and  gave  him  security 
in  peril. 

Our  modern  world  will  readily  respond  to  a  sane 
imaginative  appeal.  Napoleon  Bonaparte  was  not  far 
wrong  when  he  said  that  he  who  would  rule  men  must 
rule  them  through  the  imagination.  His  deepest  power 
lay  in  the  idealistic  conception  he  had  of  reestablish- 
ing a  world-empire,  with  France  as  its  centre,  rather 
than  in  his  ability  as  a  general  or  power  in  adminis- 
tration. It  will  always  be  so,  for  man  is  a  creature  of 
1  Eom.  xiii,  1 1  if.  2  j^p^^  yi,  10  ff. 


THE   EQUIPMENT  121 

emotions,  and  a  function  of  Christianity  is  to  develop 
that  side  of  life  so  that  it  will  not  be  erratic.  Theology 
is  the  queen  of  sciences  only  so  far  as  it  is  humanized 
and  made  to  blend  with  the  divine  in  man  and  on  earth. 
Melt  your  theology  ^  into  poetry.  The  story  of  the 
Father's  love  toward  his  erring  son  2  is  the  Epistle  to 
the  Romans  declared  in  terms  of  the  human  emotions. 
Theology  alone  creates  an  angular  soul,  unlovely  and 
of  small  power  among  serious  men ;  theological  igno- 
rance, on  the  other  hand,  suggests  a  jellyfish.  I  have 
seen  characters  that  look  like  a  neat  volume  on  rudi- 
ments of  theology,  and  others  resembling  a  handful 
of  loose  leaves  of  unconnected  but  pious  sayings. 

Our  modern  world  is  a  world  of  facts  and  things, 
and  for  this  very  reason  the  pulpit  should  be  all  aglow 
with  imaginative  skill.  The  business  man,  who  has 
nothing  but  a  steady  diet  of  logic  all  the  week,  stands 
in  a  position  to  be  easily  won  by  a  poetic  appeal  from 
one  who  has  had  experience  with  God  and  with  hu- 
manity,— the  earliest  qualification  of  a  preacher.  Little 
children,  too,  whose  minds  are  being  moulded  with  sci- 
entific precision,  more  than  at  any  moment  in  the  his- 
tory of  child-life,  need  folk-lore  and  fairy  stories  in 
the  nursery  and  the  romance  of  religion  in  the  Church 
and  Sunday-school.  Neglect  the  imagination  and  you 

1  Note  that  you  must  have  your  theology  before  you  can  melt  it. 

2  S.  Luke  XV. 


122  ADVENTURE   FOR   GOD 

offer  an  affront  to  faith  —  I  do  not  hesitate  to  say  so, 
for  I  beheve  the  imagination  to  be  as  truly  divine  as 
the  reason  in  conjunction  with  which  it  is  to  be  used.^ 
There  are  two  ways  of  cultivating  the  imagination 
which  I  would  emphasize  :  1.  Grasp  the  subjective 
teaching  of  the  Old  Testament.  Christ^s  use  of  the 
Scriptures  was  either  ethical  or  spiritual.  It  ought 
not  to  be  difficult  to  see  that  no  theory  of  criticism 
can  rob  the  Old  Testament  of  these  elements.  The 
significance,  for  instance,  of  Elijah's  retreat  into  the 
wilderness  and  his  communings  with  God^  can  never 
fail  to  teach  a  whole  garland  of  lessons,  no  matter 
what  theories  may  be  advanced  regarding  the  place 
in  the  realm  of  history  Old  Testament  miracles  hold, 
or  the  method  by  which  God  held  converse  with  men 
in  the  old  days.  If  we  have  once  realized  that  the 
history  of  the  Jews  is  a  history  illustrative  of  the  di- 
vine element  in  all  history,  and  have  read  the  story 
of  our  own  or  other  nations  looking  for  God  in  its 
pages,  then  we  can  go  back  to  the  Old  Testament 
with  a  quiet  mind  and  a  certainty  that  its  chapters 
are  designed  not  merely  to  challenge  our  critical  fac- 
ulty, but  also  to  give  scope  for  the  healthy  exercise 
of  the  imagination.  2.  Read  poetry,  especially  Dante, 

1  During  the  original  preparation  of  these  lectures  I  chanced  to 
pick  up  a  book  by  an  eminent  financier  and  statistician  urging 
the  necessity  of  the  cultivation  of  the  imagination. 

2  1  Kings  xix. 


THE   EQUIPMENT  123 

Shakespeare  and  Browning.  Dante  is  the  poet  of  saint- 
liness ;  Shakespeare,  the  poet  of  common  life  ;  Brown- 
ing, the  poet  of  moral  adventure.  Dante  reveals  life's 
worst  possibilities  and  passes  on  to  its  best.  The  In- 
ferno portrays  the  certainty  of  sin's  lash,  the  punish- 
ment of  sin  being  sin  ;  the  Purgatorio  reveals  penalty 
in  the  guise  of  blessing  —  it  is  the  book  of  pain,  but 
also  the  book  of  song ;  the  Paradiso  is  the  book  of 
present  joy  in  life  with  God.  Shakespeare  is  the  re- 
vealer  of  human  character.  No  book  except  the  Bible 
more  fully  unlocks  the  inner  recesses  of  common  life 
and  ordinary  people  —  the  sort  that  we  rub  shoulders 
with  daily.  There  are  no  saints,  his  men  and  women 
are  pictured  without  idealistic  colouring.  Browning 
seems  to  take  a  delight  in  dragging  all  the  gloomiest 
problems  of  men  into  the  public  gaze  with  scorn  that 
inheres  in  a  courage  that  knows  that  they  can  be 
overcome.  He  teaches  us  to  fear  nothing,  no  not  even 
"  the  Arch  Fear  in  visible  form,"  for  there  is  nothing 
to  fear.  His  high  hope  cannot  be  dethroned,  for  it  is 
bom  after  he  has  plumbed  the  world's  woes  and  found 
them  not  to  his  disadvantage.  Having  seen, challenged, 
fought,  won  the  victory  over  the  worst,  he  takes  his 
seat  forever  in  the  citadel  of  hope.  He  is  the  poet  of 
the  beauty  of  ugliness,  the  perfection  of  the  imper- 
fect, the  splendour  of  the  ordinary. 
The   missionary  more   than    other   men,  perhaps, 


IM  ADVENTURE   FOR   GOD 

stands  in  need  of  imaginative  development.  Novelty's 
charm  withers  in  a  day.  Lonehness  among  a  people 
who  baffle  our  efforts  to  understand  them  is  loneli- 
ness indeed.  Inner  resources  are  a  boon  to  be  coveted 
under  such  conditions.  If  one  has  imagination  he  will 
have  at  any  rate  a  sense  of  humour,  without  which 
I  soberly  believe  none  should  be  accepted  as  a  mis- 
sionary. The  imaginative  man  is  the  one  who  will 
most  quickly  come  into  touch  with  the  people,  for 
the  control  and  use  of  the  imagination  is  essential  to 
sympathy.  Does  not  the  following  excerpt  from 
Moody's  life  reveal  one  of  the  secrets  of  his  power  ? 
"He  saw  a  student  carrying  a  heavy  valise.  ...  'I 
had  started  to  read  my  Bible,  but  somehow  I  could  n't 
fasten  my  attention  to  the  book.  I  could  see  before 
me  as  I  read  that  young  man  trudging  along  with 
that  heavy  valise.  Perhaps  he  had  given  the  quarter 
that  it  would  cost  him  to  ride  to  the  station  in  the 
collection  taken  up  at  my  request  the  day  previous. 
Yes,  and  he  had  nearly  two  miles  to  walk.  Surely 
that  box  must  be  heavy  !  I  could  n't  stand  it  any 
longer.  I  went  to  the  barn  and  hurriedly  had  my 
horse  hitched  up,  overtook  the  young  man,  and 
carried  him  and  his  baggage  to  the  station.  When  I 
returned  to  the  house  I  had  no  further  difficulty  in 
fixing  my  attention  on  the  subject  I  was  studying.'" 
The  incident  is  so  trifling  that  I  would  not  venture 


THE   EQUIPMENT  125 

to  recount  it  if  it  were  not  that  I  remember  that  the 
shortest  biography  of  Christ  finds  space  to  tell  us 
how  Jesus  went  to  the  relief  of  His  friends  who  were 
distressed  in  rowing} 

II 
Hand  in  hand  with  the  cultivation  of  the  imagina- 
tion walks  that  of  the  social  instinct.  We  must  learn 
to  know  human  nature  by  contact  with  human  na- 
ture, a  thing  that  is  necessary  to  prevent  the  effort 
to  serve  from  failure.  The  light  taking  of  Christ's 
motto,  The  Son  of  man  came  not  to  be  ministered 
unto,  hut  to  minister,'^  is  to  be  objected  to.  It 
points  to  a  climax  reached  after  extended  training. 
Ministration  covei*s  such  a  diversified  field  that  it 
entails  that  deep  knowledge  which  is  the  fruit  of  the 
habit  of  observation.  It  is  tme  that  the  Christ  of  the 
public  ministry  w^as  the  tireless  minister,  but  He  be- 
came so  because  through  the  long  silent  years  He 
was  studying  human  life.  Pastoral  efficiency  takes  its 
origin  in  a  humble  sitting  at  the  feet  of  the  flock 
while  they  reveal  not  merely  their  defects,  but  also 
their  capacity.  A  fool  or  a  wayfaring  man  can  de- 
tect flaws  without  effort ;  the  cheapest  vocation  of 
life  is  that  of  a  critic.  But  it  takes  a  trained  and  alert 
eye  to  perceive  good  qualities  in  a  half-developed  or 
1 S.  Mark  vi,  48.  2  s.  Mark  x,  45. 


126  ADVENTURE   FOR   GOD 

undeveloped  character.  We  are  inclined  sometimes  to 
chafe  because  pastoral  calls,  especially  among  the 
rich,  hold  such  scant  opportunities  in  their  hand. 
That,  however,  depends  on  your  view-point.  Re- 
member that  you  can  make  a  call  what  you  choose, — 
the  shuffling  through  an  unpleasant  conventional 
necessity,  or  the  quiet  observation  in  the  home  set- 
ting of  human  character  to  which  we  are  expected 
to  minister.  A  lack  of  knowledge  of  human  life 
among  clergy  is  responsible  for  the  frequency  of 
pastoral  failure.  Among  the  maxims  of  Confucius  I 
found  these  searching  words  :  "  One  should  not  be 
concerned  not  to  be  understood  of  men ;  one  should 
be  concerned  not  to  understand  men." 

One  duty  of  a  missionary  is  to  dignify  social  life.  If 
he  chances  to  be  among  primitive  folk  a  task  of  com- 
plete reconstruction  lies  before  him.  Theories  care- 
fully gathered  beforehand  and  cherished  as  prime  ele- 
ments in  equipment  are  as  likely  as  not  destined  to 
prove  valueless  or  unsuited  to  the  special  conditions. 
He  is  thrown  back  upon  his  social  ability  and  know- 
ledge to  work  out  the  problem  of  sanctified  fellow- 
ship. It  might  be  interjected  in  this  connection  that 
inability  to  work  with  others — I  am  not  speaking  of 
natural  reserve  or  shyness,  but  the  exaggeration  of 
self-assertion — is  an  absolute  disqualification  for  mis- 
sionary vocation.  It  reveals  so  serious  a  temperamental 


THE   EQUIPMENT  127 

obstacle,  or  else  such  a  neglect  of  social  training,  as 
to  preclude  any  prospect  of  success. 

Power  of  leadership  consists  largely  in  ability  to  dis- 
cern the  spirits  of  men.  Jesus  hnew  all  men^  and  needed 
not  that  any  one  shoidd  hear  witness  concerning  man; 
for  he  himself  knew  what  was  in  man}  At  first  any 
attempt  to  appropriate  such  a  gift  as  this  must  be 
more  or  less  conscious  and  uncomfortable.  It  calls  for 
social  alertness.  After  a  while  it  becomes  instinctive, 
as  it  did  with  Lincoln,  who  knew  men  better  than 
they  knew  themselves, — a  fair  definition  of  a  leader. 
He  did  not  need  to  rely  on  book  knowledge  to  the 
extent  that  the  rest  of  us  do.  He  did  but  little  read- 
ing because  men  had  always  been  his  book,  and  his 
swiftest  glance  was  more  accurate  than  the  careful 
perusal  of  most  men.  That  preacher  who  by  a  clever 
use  of  the  Socratic  method  among  his  congregation 
during  the  week  extracted  from  his  social  intercourse 
material  for  his  Sunday  sermons  won  the  success  he 
deserved. 

m 

Patriotism  used  once  to  engender  hatred  and  jeal- 
ousy of  all  nations  but  one's  own.  It  sprang  from  the 
instinct  of  national  self-preservation,  which  jumped  to 
the  conclusion  that  unless  the  nation  strove  for  su- 
1  S.  John  ii,  24,  25. 


128  ADVENTURE   FOR   GOD 

premacy,  and  won  by  the  force  of  its  might,  its  own 
existence  was  doomed.  In  the  old  days  it  was  a  mili- 
tary virtue,  with  the  motto  Dulce  et  decorum  est  pro 
patiia  mori.  But  the  times  are  changed.  International 
experience  is  by  degrees  teaching  mutual  respect  and 
consideration  among  the  nations  of  the  world,  and 
patriotism  feels  it  as  large  a  privilege  to  live  for  one's 
country  as  to  die  for  it.  It  is  becoming  more  and 
more  a  link  in  the  chain  of  unity  instead  of  an  ele- 
ment making  for  estrangement.  The  efficient  priest 
cannot  afford  to  forget  that  he  is  a  citizen,  and  that 
as  such  he  must  plunge  into  present-day  questions, 
carrying  with  him  the  spiritual  leaven  that  is  to  leaven 
the  whole  lump  of  life.  The  missionary  who  would 
work  in  sympathy  with  other  nations  must  first  know 
and  love  his  own. 

The  prophets  of  old  were  patriots,  and  from  this 
fact  came  half  their  power.  Jesus,  the  pride  of  na- 
tions, was  a  lover  of  His  own  country  and  of  men  who 
like  Himself  came  of  Jewish  lineage.  S.  Paul  was 
stimulated  by  thoughts  of  citizenship  in  a  rising  de- 
gree to  the  close  of  his  career.  It  became  to  him  a 
stimulus  and  inspiration  for  purposeful  adventure, 
and  endowed  him  with  subtle  tact.  Tact,  let  us  recol- 
lect, is  sympathy  in  operation. 

The  exploration  of  travellers  and  the  quest  of  mis- 
sionaries in  centuries  gone  were  partially  incited  by 


THE   EQUIPMENT  129 

zeal  for  national  honour.  In  our  day  conquest  of  na- 
tions for  selfish  ends  has  become  well-nigh  impossible, 
and  has  given  place  to  a  desire  for  that  conquest  that 
will  manifest  itself  in  peace  and  good- will.  Diplomacy 
lives  for  the  promotion  of  the  intelligent  apprecia- 
tion and  enlarged  understanding  of  foreign  nations 
not  less  than  for  the  protection  of  home  interests. 
The  foreigner  not  infrequently  becomes  the  foremost 
interpreter  of  a  neighbouring  nation's  character,  so 
that  it  is  easily  conceivable  how  the  Christian  mis- 
sionary, provided  he  be  a  patriot,  may  instruct  in  the 
true  principles  of  self-fulfilment  a  people  far  removed 
in  language  and  customs  from  his  own. 

Patriotism  is  a  help  to  the  study  of  language.  The 
thought  is  not  strained,  having  a  bearing  on  the  sig- 
nificance and  spiritual  value  of  language.  Is  it  not  so, 
that  the  acquisition  of  an  unknown  tongue  is  not  so 
much  the  instrument  through  which  we  are  to  con- 
vey our  ideas  to  others  —  that  can  always  be  done  by 
an  interpreter — as  the  key  by  means  of  which  the 
door  admitting  us  into  native  life  may  be  unlocked? 
He  who  masters  another  tongue  endows  himself  with 
a  second  soul.  Language  is  the  conserver  of  nation- 
ality as  well  as  the  highest  symbol  of  the  nation'*s 
personality.  Nicholas  I  of  Russia,  in  his  endeavour 
to  suppress  the  dialects  of  conquered  states,  and 
Alexander  III,  his  successor  in  his  onslaught  on  the 


130  ADVENTURE   FOR   GOD 

Polish  tongue,  were  bent  on  crushing  out  the  lesser  for 
the  sake  of  the  greater  nationality.  The  Pan-Slavonic 
ideal  aims  at  one  language  for  the  entire  race.  The 
vernacular,  like  indigenous  religion,  is  hard  to  annihi- 
late. It  may  be  done  by  the  annihilation  of  the  peo- 
ple ;  I  know  no  other  way.  A  new  language,  however, 
may  be  brought  into  being  by  the  blending  of  the 
vernacular  with  alien  tongues,  furnishing  an  enlarged 
medium  of  thought  for  a  race  whose  horizon  has  been 
extended.  In  little  England  Welsh  on  the  one  hand 
and  Gaelic  on  the  other  have  stoutly  withstood  the 
onslaught  of  Dane  and  Saxon  and  Norman.  Some 
foolish  folk  suppose  that  English  will  some  day  be  a 
substitute  for  the  Babel  of  dialects  in  the  Philippines. 
Though  it  may  become  a  lingua  franca^  Malay,  en- 
larged and  modified  perhaps,  will  always  continue. 

If  for  a  while  the  intellect  of  Europe  lived  in  the 
language  of  Rome,  the  common  people  were  during 
the  same  period  constructing  a  mode  of  expression  all 
their  own.  Early  in  the  fourteenth  century  there  is- 
sues in  the  purest  Italian  tongue  that  gem  of  poems 
which  is  divine  not  only  in  title,  but  also  in  character, 
the  burden  of  the  song  being  devotion  to  the  nation 
as  a  sacred  thing — the  writer  himself  was  an  exile 
because  a  patriot.  The  Divine  Comedy  signalized 
the  adolescence  of  a  language  and  promised  the  birth 
of  a  nation.  In  the  sixteenth  century  French  was  held 


THE   EQUIPMENT  131 

in  low  estimation  under  the  pressure  of  the  classical 
renaissance.  The  poets  of  the  Pleiad^  came  to  the 
rescue  and  prepared  the  way  for  the  proud  Academic 
fraiK^aise.  Du  Bellay,  one  of  the  number,  "recognized 
of  ^vhat  force  the  music  and  dignity  of  language  are, 
how  they  enter  into  the  inmost  part  of  things;  and 
in  pleading  for  the  cultivation  of  the  French  lan- 
guage he  is  pleading  for  no  merely  scholastic  inter- 
est, but  for  freedom,  impulse,  reality,  not  in  literature 
merely,  but  in  daily  communion  of  speech."^ 

In  view  of  these  facts  it  always  seems  to  me  a  grave 
affront  to  national  life  that  the  highest  expression  of 
worship  should  find  its  only  utterance  in  the  Roman 
Church  through  the  medium  of  a  dead  language.  It 
is  one  of  the  standing  tokens  of  the  unextinguishable 

1  The  school  composed  of  Pierre  de  Ronsard  and  six  like- 
minded  geniuses. 

2  Pater's  Renaissance,  p.  171.  It  was  maintained  by  classical 
enthusiasts  that  "science  could  be  adequately  discussed  and 
poetry  nobly  written  only  in  the  dead  languages.  '  Those  who 
speak  thus,'  says  Du  Bellay,  'make  me  think  of  those  relics 
which  one  may  only  see  through  a  little  pane  of  glass,  and  must 
not  touch  with  one's  hands.  That  is  what  these  people  do  with 
all  branches  of  culture,  which  they  keep  shut  up  in  Greek  and 
Latin  books,  not  permitting  one  to  see  them  otherwise,  or 
transport  them  out  of  dead  words  into  those  which  are  alive 
and  wing  their  way  daily  through  the  mouths  of  men. '  'Lan- 
guages,' he  says  again,  'are  not  born  like  plants  and  trees, 
some  naturally  feeble  and  sickly,  others  healthy  and  strong  and 
apter  to  bear  the  weight  of  men's  conceptions,  but  all  their  vir- 
tue is  generated  in  the  world  of  choice  and  men's  freewill  con- 
cerning them.  Therefore,  I  cannot  blame  too  strongly  the  rash- 


132  ADVENTURE   FOR   GOD 

animosity  toward  nationalism  of  that  communion. 
The  vernacular  reaches  its  zenith  in  worship,  but 
Rome  denies  it  the  privilege  in  the  Mass. 

As  a  further  illustration  of  the  intimacy  between 
the  vernacular  and  national  character  it  is  worth 
noting  that  at  moments  of  national  debility  there  is 
apt  to  be  an  importation  of  foreign  letters,  as,  for  in- 
stance, immediately  prior  to  the  rise  of  the  modern 
German  Empire  there  was  an  affectation  in  Germany 
of  French  thought  and  expression;  and  among  the 
decadent  set  in  America  and  England,  the  most  ob- 
jectionable French  literature  is  gloated  over  by  its 
votaries,  to  their  further  degradation. 

Language  study  is  frequently  the  bugbear  of  the 
newly  arrived  missionary,  who  discovers  that  he  must 
settle  down  to  a  couple  of  years'  hard  grinding  be- 
fore he  can  turn  his  zeal  loose  upon  native  life.  If  he 
remembers  that  his  task  is  not  a  dry  duty  to  be  got- 
ten through  with,  but  that  in  it  he  will  find  the  soul 
of  the  people,  there  will  be  at  least  a  dash  of  romance 
in  his  study  to  give  zest  in  its  pursuit. 

ness  of  some  of  our  countrymen  who,  being  anything  rather  than 
Greeks  or  Latins,  deprecate  and  reject  with  more  than  stoical 
disdain  everything  written  in  French ;  nor  can  I  express  my  sur- 
prise at  the  odd  opinion  of  some  learned  men  who  think  that 
our  tongue  is  wholly  incapable  of  erudition  and  good  literature ' " 
(p.  169). 


THE   EQUIPMENT  133 

IV 

The  spirit  of  moral  adventure  stands  high  in  the 
missionary's  equipment.  He  must  be  a  man  whose 
experience  justifies  his  boldly  saying  with  S.  Paul, 
Be  ye  followers  of  me.  He  is  to  be  a  leader  in 
righteousness,  and  it  is  a  leader's  place  to  go  before. 
The  world  of  men  need  a  sure  sign  that  there  is  a 
power  given  by  means  of  which  they  can  achieve 
moral  stature.  It  is  insufficient  that  we  should  be 
equipped  merely  to  go  down  into  the  shadows  and 
sympathize  with  weakness;  we  must  be  able  to  bid 
them  come  up  with  us  along  a  path  with  which  we 
have  already  become  somewhat  familiar. 

There  are  two  influences  which  in  our  day  make 
strongly  against  the  processes  of  self-improvement, — 
a  certain  depreciation  of  the  power  of  the  human 
will,  and  the  supposed  cheapness  of  pardon.  Modern 
life  has  abated  or  obscured  the  sense  of  moral  re- 
sponsibility. The  common  conception  is  that  in  the 
main  we  are  born  what  we  are  to  be.  Our  fate  is  de- 
termined largely  by  our  progenitors,  and  what  is 
left  of  it  when  heredity  has  finished  playing  with  us 
is  disposed  of  by  environment.  The  best  we  can  do 
is  to  create  modifications  of  a  minor  sort.  Popular 
science  is  responsible  for  this  distortion  of  the  truth, — 
popular  science  usually  being  composed  of  hasty  con- 


134  ADVENTURE   FOR  GOD 

elusions  drawn  from  a  little  learning.  The  laws  of 
heredity  are  but  dimly  understood,  and  the  good 
heredity  at  our  disposal  has  never  been  encouraged 
to  spend  the  full  extent  of  its  beneficent  force  on  us, 
whereas  bad  heredity  is  invited  to  lay  upon  our  lives 
its  maximum  weight.  As  for  environment,  the  whole 
history  of  civilization  consists  in  the  narration  of 
man's  progressive  conquest  of  it.  It  is  for  us  to  test 
experimentally  to  what  extent  we  may  appropriate 
the  good  characteristics  of  our  forbears  far  and  near. 
The  Anglo-Saxon  aristocracy  of  yesterday  was  proud 
chiefly  of  the  family  name  and  the  family  gout.  True 
noblesse  oblige  drives  us  to  make  the  family  virtues, 
brilliant  yesterday  but  dim  to-day,  shine  forth  again 
in  our  lives.  It  is  a  worthy  venture. 

Any  system  of  semi-fatalism  like  that  of  the  pseudo- 
scientist  is  strangely  at  variance  with  the  Bible.  It  is 
the  book  of  personal  responsibility,  even  though  it  be 
the  book  of  redemption.  It  portrays  human  life  not 
as  a  toy  at  the  disposal  of  chance,  but  as  a  solemn 
trust,  self-determining  at  will.  It  may  rise  or  fall  ac- 
cording as  it  chooses.  Men  are  represented  as  free 
agents.  They  are  called  to  become  that  which  they 
are  not,  and  which  they  can  become  only  through 
deliberate  choice  and  effort;  to  do  things  that  seem 
so  far  in  advance  of  human  possibility  as  almost  to 
mock  our  defectible  and  defective  nature,  but  which, 


THE   EQUIPMENT  135 

if  we  fail  to  achieve,  expose  us  to  the  charge  of  cul- 
pable weakness  and  negligence.  When  any  one  attains, 
he  receives  commendation  as  having  won.  If  he  fails, 
condemnation  is  speedy  and  stern.  Human  life, 
human  character,  is  represented  as  being  just  what 
each  person  determines  to  make  it.  All  this  the  Bible 
proclaims  in  the  terms  of  human  experience. 

God's  grace  is  not  honoured  by  any  depreciation  of 
the  power  of  the  human  will.  We  never  know  what 
measure  of  moral  capacity  is  at  our  disposal  until  we 
try  to  express  it  in  action.  It  is  not  visible  except  so 
far  as  it  declares  itself  in  terms  of  duty  performed. 
An  adventure  of  some  proportions  is  not  uncommonly 
all  that  a  young  man  needs  to  determine  and  fix  his 
manhood's  powers.  In  the  realm  of  moral  character 
this  is  profoundly  true.^ 

Another  bar  to  moral  progress  is  the  subconscious 
assurance  that  pardon  is  cheap.  Popular  theology,  like 
popular  science,  is  dangerous.  The  cun-ent  Protestant 
idea  of  justification  by  faith  is  not  that  of  S.  Paul. 
Pardon  is  free,  but  not  cheap.  Without  some  recogni- 
tion and  acceptance  of  penance,  whatever  form  it  may 
take,  there  can  be  at  best  but  a  low  regard  of  God's 

1  "  What  we  are  to  be  must  in  great  measure  depend  upon  the 
eiforts  we  are  prepared  to  make.  If  we  are  to  become  more  spirit- 
ual men,  it  can  only  be  because  we  are  firmly  determined  that  it 
shall  be  so."  A.  W.  Robinson,  The  Personal  Life  of  the  Clergy^ 
p.  20. 


136  ADVENTURE   FOR   GOD 

mercy.  It  is  not  that  we  think  to  win  pardon  by  self- 
inflicted  pain,  or  that  we  consider  the  sufferings  of 
Christ  incomplete;  rather  is  it  the  intuitive  effort  of 
one  who  loves  his  Saviour  to  claim  a  share  in  His  suf- 
ferings,^ and  so  in  some  dim  way  come  to  understand 
the  meaning  of  atonement.  Penance  is  merely  an  in- 
dex finger  helping  men  to  estimate  the  full  value  of 
forgiveness,  and  all  who  have  surrendered  themselves 
to  it  know  what  illumination  and  sweetness  lie  hid- 
den in  its  shadows: 

The  thing  that  seems 
Mere  misery  under  human  schemes, 
Becomes,  regarded  hy  the  light 
Of  love,  as  very  near,  or  quite 
As  good  a  gift  as  joy  before. 

Modem  teachers  of  ethics  tell  us  that  the  growth  of 
character,  like  every  other  form  of  evolution,  is  slow. 
Doubtless  it  is  so  at  best,  but  never  as  slow  as  a  slug- 
gish spirit  convinces  itself  that  it  is.  Pace  is  commen- 
surate with  effort,  and  no  man  can  measure  the  po- 
tential rate  of  his  own  growth  until  he  has  tested  his 
will  capacity  to  the  utmost  and  to  the  end. 

Few  can  speak  of  growth  in  righteousness  without 
a  sense  of  shame  and  confusion.  Surrender  to  weak- 
nesses, presumptuous  sins,  minimized  faults,  rise  up 

1  Cf.  S.  Paul's  phrase  {Phil,  iii,  10),  that  I  may  know  .  .  .  the  fel- 
lowship of  his  sufferings.  See  also  Col.  i,  24. 


THE  EQUIPMENT  137 

to  condemn  the  majority.  But  underlying  all  else  are 
two  clear  indications  of  capacity, —  we  know  that  we 
did  not  fail  of  necessity,  but  of  choice;  otherwise  our 
wrong -doing  would  be  no  cause  for  shame  any  more 
than  the  nightmare  which  disturbs  our  rest.  The 
power  of  choice  still  remains  to  us,  though  of  course 
it  must  now  be  backed  up  by  more  vigour  than  if  we 
had  not  weakened  character  by  indulgence.  The  other 
encouragement  is  that  we  still  expect  emancipation 
from  our  faults.  The  road  to  be  travelled  cannot  be 
quite  the  same  as  it  would  have  been  some  years  ago, 
but  the  goal  is  unaltered.  It  does  not  reject  us  as  un- 
worthy or  hopeless,  but  if  anything,  it  is  more  in- 
viting than  ever.  A  little  more  healthy  self-reliance, 
a  little  more  belief  in  the  Everlasting  Arms,  and  we 
would  undertake  a  conquest  here  and  there  of  things 
that  menace  our  well-being  and  curtail  our  useful- 
ness. General  Braddock  was  dying.  He  "roused  himself 
twice  only,  for  a  moment,  from  his  death  stupor: 
once,  the  first  night,  to  ejaculate  mournfully,  'Who 
would  have  thought  it!'  And  again  once,  he  was  heard 
to  say,  days  after,  in  a  tone  of  hope, '  Another  time 
we  will  do  better!'  which  were  his  last  words,  'death 
following  in  a  few  minutes.'  Weary,  heavy-laden  soul; 
deep  sleep  now  descending  on  it, — soft,  sweet  cata- 
racts of  Sleep  and  Rest;  suggesting  hope,  and  triumph 
over  sorrow,  after  all.  'Another  time  we  will  do  bet- 


138  ADVENTURE   FOR  GOD 

ter;'  and  in  a  few  minutes  was  dead!"^  He  planned 
his  next  adventure,  but  it  never  came  off.  Ours  will. 

You  will  notice  that  the  features  of  equipment  which 
I  have  emphasized  have  as  their  basis  elements  that 
are  common  to  all,  though  this  faculty  or  that  may 
be  more  susceptible  to  cultivation  in  one  than  in  an- 
other. The  ties  that  most  quickly  and  most  firmly 
bind  us  to  others  are  not  the  endowments  of  genius 
and  brilliancy  such  as  excite  admiration.  These  rather 
lift  men  up  on  a  pedestal  and  act  as  a  force  making 
for  separation.  It  is  the  full  development  of  the  ordi- 
nary gifts  of  human  nature  that  furnish  the  soundest 
armour  for  ministerial  efficiency, — a  thing  to  encour- 
age the  many  of  us  who  are  conscious  that,  though 
having  no  conspicuous  talents,  we  are  called  to  the 
priesthood  and  its  successes. 


1  Carlyle's  Frederick  the  Greats  bk.  xvi,  ch.  xiv. 


LECTURE  VI 

THE  GOAL 

About  midnight  came  a  voice  among  them  which  said,  My 
sons  and  not  my  chief  tans,  my  friends  and  not  my  warriors, 
go  ye  hence,  where  ye  hope  best  to  do,  and  as  I  bad  you.  — 
Ah,  thanked  be  thou.  Lord,  that  thou  wilt  vouchsafe  to  call  us 
thy  sinners.  Now  may  we  rvell  prove  that  we  have  not  lost 
our  pains. 

WE  began  the  discussion  of  adventure  for  God 
with  the  banner  of  romance  flying  to  the 
breeze.  Visions  of  His  deep  purposes  caught  our  imagi- 
nation, and  the  prospect  of  sharing  in  the  process  of 
working  them  out  was  a  tonic  to  our  souls.  We  heard 
the  moan  of  a  suffering  world  telling  us  there  was 
place  for  practical  compassion.  The  glint  of  hope  and 
high  expectation  was  in  our  eye  as  we  stood  by  and 
watched  the  procession  of  God's  missionary  knights 
march  past  with  success  in  their  hands,  and  in  desire 
and  purpose  we  flung  in  our  lot  with  them,  donning 
an  equipment  that  might  stand  the  strain  of  the  cam- 
paign. It  is  exciting  to  feel  that  life  may  be  made 
so  effective  as  to  reach  the  end  of  space,  the  outmost 
bounds  of  human  life.  It  is  a  help  to  be  assured  that 
the  deep  bass  note  of  a  suffering  race  is  there,  not  to 
be  shut  out  lest  we  hear  it,  not  to  force  itself  upon  us 
to  torture  us,  but  as  an  appeal  for  aid ;  and  that  those 
who  are  called  to  help  can  help.  It  makes  missionary 


140  ADVENTURE   FOR   GOD 

work  a  triumphant  march  if  the  nations  of  the  world 
are  ready  and  waiting  to  be  converted.  Our  loneliness 
in  a  foreign  land  is  easily  bearable  with  the  comfort- 
ing thought  that  wherever  we  go  Christ  has  preceded 
us  and  is  waiting  to  receive  us.  And  if  an  important 
part  of  our  equipment  is  but  the  wise  development 
of  ordinary  gifts,  and  does  not  consist  in  unique  birth 
endowments,  then  the  missionary  vocation  is  of  all 
vocations  the  one  to  be  most  coveted.  While  not  dis- 
puting the  conclusion,  before  we  accept  it  as  being 
something  we  are  ready  for,  let  us  lay  aside  the  veil 
of  romance,  and  measure  with  an  accurate  rule  various 
grave  matters  that  are  essential  to  a  balanced  view  of 
the  situation. 


The  contrast  between  the  beginning  and  the  end  of 
life  is  great.  In  it  lies  all  the  difference  between  pro- 
mise and  fulfilment.  Beginnings  are  radiant  with  hope ; 
the  end  at  best  leaves  but  a  broken  cord  hanging  from 
our  hand.  If  romance  enshrines  the  infant  head  in  a 
circle  of  light,  tragedy  draws  one  or  more  of  its  red 
lines  across  the  face  of  old  age.  Lying  at  the  feet  of 
childhood  are  blossoms  of  virtue  and  achievement; 
at  those  of  old  age,  the  fragments  of  disappointed 
hopes,  shattered  vows,  blighted  expectations.  The  man 
who  most  nearly  approaches  success  is  he  whose  spirit  is 


THE   GOAL  141 

not  broken  under  pressure,  whose  faith  is  not  quenched 
by  clouds,  whose  purpose  from  first  to  last  is  not  de- 
flected by  threat  or  allurement.  High  aspiration  al- 
ways leads  into  the  thick  of  trouble ;  there  is  no  round- 
about way  to  the  goal. 

But  it  is  hard,  at  the  inception  of  a  career,  to  believe 
that  these  things  must  be.  Why  cannot  the  path  be 
kept  sunny  all  the  way  through  ?  Are  there  no  means 
of  escape  from  the  pain  and  inconvenience  of  wounded 
feet  ?  Can  we  not  somehow  elude  the  suffering  of  per- 
sonal failure  which,  we  recognize,  often  if  not  always 
means  the  promotion  of  the  cause  ?  The  strength  of 
youth  is  so  commanding,  its  buoyancy  so  elastic,  as 
to  deceive  us  sometimes  into  thinking  that  the  inevi- 
table is  capable  of  being  avoided.  But  it  is  unkind  to 
allow  those  who  are  drawn  toward  missionary  life  to 
imagine  anything  but  the  truth.  Part  of  the  test  of 
vocation  is  that  having  seen  and  pondered  over  the 
cost  we  are  prepared  to  pay  it.  The  missionary  who 
sets  out  with  nothing  but  the  glamour  of  the  mo- 
ment to  move  him  is  on  the  highroad  to  failure.  The 
forces  of  progress  are  relentless  ;  they  not  only  demand, 
but  they  take  to  a  nicety  their  pound  of  flesh.  It  is 
noticeable  with  what  emphasis  our  Lord  lays  down 
the  minimum  price  of  discipleship,  and  how  the  Apos- 
tles reiterate  its  terms.  If  any  man  would  come  after 
me,  let  him  deny  himsef,  and  take  up  his  cross,  and 


142  ADVENTURE   FOR   GOD 

follow  me.  For  whosoever  would  save  his  life  shall 
lose  it:  and  whosoever  shall  lose  his  life  for  my  sake 
shall  find  it}  If  so  be  that  we  suffer  with  him^  that  we 
may  be  also  glorified  with  him}  The  kind  of  suffering 
is  not  that  which  we  go  out  of  our  way  to  inflict  upon 
ourselves,  but  which  comes,  if  not  to-day,  then  to- 
morrow, to  every  one  who  is  morally  and  spiritually 
ambitious. 

Christ's  life  is  the  normal  life  in  its  suffering  not  less 
than  its  perfection.  That  is  to  say,  a  life  lived  consis- 
tently on  the  same  plane  as  His  would  entail  as  much 
pain  —  the  character  of  the  suffering  might  be  dif- 
ferent, but  that  does  not  signify  —  now  as  then.  Suf- 
fering is  proportionate  to  the  completeness  and  the 
aspiration  of  our  lives. 

Brow  made  more  comely  by  the  thorns  harsh  kiss, 
Hands  taught  new  mercy  by  nails  rnerciless, 
Heaii's  portals  open-lanced  to  human  need, 
Feet  shod  with  fiery  wounds  that  lend  them  sjjeed. 

The  friends  of  Jesus  are  like  their  leader  in  that  they 
never  lose  their  pains  during  the  period  of  conflict, 
nor  the  compensating  efficiency  that  is  ensuant  upon 
Christian  endurance. 

The  Lord  began  His  course  among  mortals  with  the 
diadem  of  success  upon  His  brow.  Heaven  spoke  to 

1  S.  Matt,  xvi,  24,  25.  ^  Rom.  viii,  17. 


THE   GOAL  143 

earth  about  the  hour-old  Child  v/hose  name  was 
to  be  Wondeifid,  Counsellor^  The  mighty  God,  The 
everlasting  Father,  The  Prince  of  Peace}  The  wise 
sat  at  His  youthful  feet.^  God  favoured  Him  and  man 
loved  Him.^  When  he  began  His  larger  work  He  had 
the  inspiration  of  divine  Sonship  in  His  soul.*  There 
were  moments  when  popularity  laid  its  coils  to  fold 
Him  in  Laocoon-like  embrace;^  the  world  ivent  after 
Him,  to  use  the  frightened  hyperbole  of  the  Phari- 
sees as  they  beheld  the  hold  He  had  on  the  common 
folk.« 

But  troubles  came,  first  in  ones  and  twos,  and  then  in 
groups,  finally  in  phalanxes.  The  envy  of  His  enemies 
takes  shape  in  plots,  and  ends  in  tragedy.  Within  is  the 
pain  of  disappointment;  the  dulness  of  His  disciples 
impedes  His  work ;  the  faith  of  the  people  affords  Him 
but  the  fragment  of  an  opportunity ;  His  teaching  is 
misunderstood  by  those  nearest  Him — then  arrives 
that  hour  in  Gethsemane  in  which  His  soul  so  quivers 
with  pain  that  we  can  see  it  suffer  as  He  is  drawn  away 
to  bleed  on  the  cross  and  die.  The  climax  of  His 
faithful  failure  is  reached  in  a  cry  that  is  the  most 
perfect  portraiture  of  loneliness  that  the  world  holds.*^ 
At  the  beginning  of  His  life  there  was  the  song  of  peace 

1  Isa.  ix,  6.  2  s^  Luke  ii,  46.  3  s.  Luke  ii,  52. 

4  S.  Matt,  iii,  17.  5  s.  John  vi,  15. 

6  S.  John  xii,  19.  7  S.  Mark  xv,  34. 


144  ADVENTURE   FOR   GOD 

and  good-will,^  and  the  poetry  of  hope  and  joy.^  At 
the  end  the  bystander  can  discern  nothing  but  the 
half-silence  of  a  broken  heart  and  the  wild  music  of 
the  untamed  storm.  We  who  are  trained  to  see  be- 
neath the  surface,  with  the  wisdom  and  piety  of 
centuries  to  help  us  out,  read  the  triumph  so  clearly 
as  almost  to  be  blind  to  all  else.  The  enthusiast, 
half  drunk  with  the  vision  of  youth,  ready  to  bear 
self-inflicted  pain,  forgets  that  the  suffering  of  an 
adventurer  for  God  is  that  which  is  least  expected 
and  least  wanted.  When  Jesus  began  to  shew  unto  his 
disciples,  how  that  he  must  go  unto  Jer^usalem,  and  suffer 
many  things  of  the  elders  and  chief  priests  and  scribes, 
and  be  killed,  and  the  third  day  be  raised  up;  Peter 
took  him,  and  began  to  rebuke  him,  saying.  Be  it  far 
from  thee.  Lord :  this  shall  never  be  unto  thee?  Self- 
chosen  suffering  seems  so  suitable;  the  kind  that 
comes,  however,  is  so  necessary.  It  takes  a  long  while 
for  us  to  realize  that  suffering  is  the  real  work  of  an 
aspiring  soul.^  The  protean  character  and  the  surprises 
of  suffering  form  the  hardest  phase  of  the  suffering  life 
to  be  borne.  The  capacity  of  the  trained  mind  and 
refined  soul  to  suffer  is  limitless,  and  it  deepens 
until  life  ends,  or  the  faculties  wear  out.  Exemption 
can  be  bought  only  at  a  price  that  a  true-souled  man 

1  5.  Inike  ii,  13,  14.  2  ^.  i^]^^  i,  45  ff.,  gg  ff.  ;  ii,  29  ff. 

3  S.  Matt,  xvi,  21,  22.  *  J.  Mozley,  quoted  by  Illingworth. 


THE  GOAL  145 

would  not  care  to  pay.  It  is  no  argument  against  the 
love  of  God  that  the  world  is  a  world  of  pain,  pro- 
vided, as  we  know  to  be  the  case,  that  God  Himself  has 
elected  to  suffer  more  than  the  greatest  sufferer,  and 
that  there  is  a  worthy  end  to  it  all;  provided  that 
some  day  we  cease  to  be  chieftains  and  become  God's 
sons,  that  we  cease  to  be  His  warriors  and  become  His 
friends,  or  in  a  word,  that  we  lose  not  our  pains. 

This  law  of  suffering  is  not  a  Christian  invention. 
S.  John  Baptist,  with  less  to  sustain  him  than  the  least 
Christian,  went  through  the  same  stern  school,  illus- 
trating that  it  was  the  rule  of  the  old  order  not  less 
than  of  the  new.  His  young  days,  I  do  not  hesitate  to 
aver,  were  joyous,  hopeful  moments  in  spite  of  his  in- 
dulgence in  rigorous  self-discipline.  He,  too,  tasted  the 
sweets  of  popularity,  so  that  when  the  time  came  for 
him  to  be  smitten  with  the  sword  of  chastisement  by 
another  hand,  the  wound  cut  into  the  quick  of  his 
soul.  His  feet  were  almost  gone,  his  treadings  had 
well-nigh  slipt.  The  dumb  prison  walls  would  have 
buried  his  pain  in  their  silence  had  he  not  uttered  one 
cry  that  pierced  even  their  callousness:  Art  thou  he 
that  Cometh,  or  look  ice  for  another?^  Had  his  powers 
been  devoted  to  the  furtherance  of  a  false  cause,  or 
not?  \Vho  can  fully  weigh  the  pain  of  such  a  doubt? 
His  mind  was  set  at  rest  by  Christ  before  his  head 
1 S.  Matt,  xi,  3. 


146  ADVENTURE   FOR  GOD 

became  the  toy  of  merry-makers.  But  the  doubt  lives 
on  to  torture  other  adventurers  at  the  sunset  of  their 
career. 

S.  Peter,  the  Apostle  who  "  loved  to  choose  and  see 
his  path,"  was  not  allowed  to  play  truant  from  the 
school  of  heroes.  When  thou  ivast  youngs  thou gh-dedst 
thyself,  and  walkedst  whither  thou  woiddest :  but  ichen 
thou  shalt  be  old,  thou  shalt  stretch  forth  thy  hands, 
and  another  shall  gird  thee,  and  carry  thee  whither 
thou  wouldest  not}  If  the  story  is  true,  at  the  very 
end  the  grizzled  Apostle  chose  life  as  his  discipline 
rather  than  death,  even  when  death  was  that  which 
God  willed  for  him ;  and  had  not  Christ  laid  upon  his 
arm  a  warning  hand,  he  would  have  failed. 

S.  Paul,  the  prototype  and  pattern  of  the  modern 
missionary,  began  his  course  as  a  Christian  with  a 
vision  whose  brilliancy  lingered  upon  his  life  beyond 
the  usual  term  of  such  visitations.  His  history  has 
more  suffering  in  it  than  often  falls  to  the  lot  of 
men.  Out  of  his  experience  he  exhorts  his  friend  to 
be  partaker  of  the  afflictions  of  the  gospel  accoi'ding 
to  the  power  of  God.^  There  were  occasions  when  de- 
pression engulfed  him.  We  would  not,  brethren,  have 
you  ignorant  of  our  ti'ouble  which  came  to  us  in  Asia, 
that  we  were  pressed  out  of  measure,  above  strength, 
insomuch  that  we  despaired  even  of  life}  When  sun- 
1 S.  John  xxi,  18.  2^  Tim.  i,  8.  ^2  Cor.  i,  8. 


THE   GOAL  147 

set  was  in  sight,  and  the  Roman  sword  that  was  to 
smite  off  his  head  was  already  uphfted,  he  uttered 
his  cry  of  abandonment:  Demas  forsook  me,  having 
loved  this  present  wordd}  At  my  first  defence  no  one 
took  my  part,  hut  all  forsook  Tne?  But  he  expresses 
no  surprise.  It  is  only  in  accord  with  the  law  of  God's 
kingdom.  Having  fought  his  fight  and  tried  to  live 
for  the  brethren,  God  has  issued  His  decree  that  it  is 
better  for  them  that  he  should  die, — die  in  full  view 
of  impostors  leading  astray  the  flock.  And  he  dies 
like  his  Master,  with  alternate  notes  of  triumph  and 
cries  of  pain  on  his  lips. 

II 

Let  us  make  no  mistake.  The  cleverest  weavers  of 
romance  must  always  be  the  foremost  pupils  in  the 
school  of  suffering.  And  without  pain  there  is  no 
glory.  It  is  wise,  nay  necessary,  to  sit  down  and 
quietly  reckon  with  this  certainty,  so  that  when  we 
meet  our  fate  we  shall  not  be  surprised  or  overborne. 
Which  of  you,  intending  to  build  a  tower,  sitteth  not 
down  first,  and  counteth  the  cost,  whether  he  have  suf- 
ficient to  finish  it?^  It  is  often  the  case  that  a  young 
priest  goes  out  to  his  task  without  adequate  appre- 
ciation of  even  its  initial  discouragements.  A  little 
pained  surprise,  much  hopeless  floundering,  a  gradual 
1^  Tim.  iv,  10.  ^2  Tim.  iv,  16.  ^  S.  Luke  xiv,  28. 


148  ADVENTURE   FOR  GOD 

lowering  of  ideals,  come  to  an  inglorious  close  in  the 
cessation  of  effort,  and  a  new  blot  upon  the  Church's 
escutcheon.  To  some  the  buffeting  comes  early,  to 
some  late;  but  to  all  it  comes.  For  some  it  takes  the 
form  of  apathy  in  parochial  life  or  partisan  bicker- 
ings, for  others  the  blight  of  worldliness  or  the  lust 
of  visible  success  in  conflict  with  the  pure  ideals  of 
the  youthful  pastor;  but  for  all  it  is  a  certainty. 

Beloved,  think  it  not  strange  concerriing  the  fiery 
trial  which  is  to  try  you,  as  though  some  strange 
thing  happened  unto  you:  hut  rejoice,  inasmuch  as  ye 
are  partakers  of  Chrisfs  sufferings ;  that,  when  his 
glory  shall  he  revealed,  ye  may  he  glad  also  with  ex- 
ceeding joy.  If  ye  he  reproached  for  the  name  of  Christ, 
happy  are  ye ;  for  the  spirit  of  glory  and  of  God 
resteth  on  you.  .  .  .  But  let  none  of  you  suffer  as  a 
murderer,  or  as  a  thief,  or  as  an  evildoer,  or  as  a  busy- 
hody  in  other  men^s  matters.  Yet  if  any  man  suffer  as 
a  Christian,  let  him  not  he  ashamed;  hid  let  him 
glorify  God  on  this  hehalf  .  .  .  Let  them  that  siffer 
according  to  the  will  of  God  commit  the  keeping  of 
their  soids  to  him  in  well  doing  as  unto  a  faithfid 
Creator.^  S.  Peter,  you  see,  did  in  his  day  what  I  am 
striving  to  do, — to  convince  men  of  the  inevitable  suf- 
fering that  is  the  lot  of  the  Christian,  and  especially 
of  him  who  in  any  sense  is  to  be  a  leader  in  Christ's 
1 1  Pet.  iv,  12  fF. 


THE   GOAL  149 

Church.  We  must  not  be  surprised  when  it  comes  as 
though  it  were  strange,  for  it  is  an  integral  part  of 
experience.  That  it  is  fiery  does  not  signify — this 
too  is  part  of  a  divinely  ordered  programme.  A 
Christian's  sufferings  are  the  prelude  to  a  Christian's 
triumph,  as  in  the  case  of  the  first  Christian,  Christ. 
There  is,  however,  one  kind  of  suffering  from  which 
the  Christian  is  exempt,  that  of  the  evil-doer — the 
murderer,  the  thief,  the  busybody.  He  is  to  be 
ashamed  if  this  should  come  to  him,  but  if  he  suffer 
as  an  adventurer  for  God,  not  only  must  he  be  not 
ashamed,  but  he  may  rejoice  in  the  great  deeps  of 
the  soul. 

We  must  not  confuse  the  two  possible  kinds  of 
failure  in  ministerial  life.  To  the  one,  it  is  true,  we  are 
liable,  to  the  other  we  are  bound.  Though  we  may 
have  a  wholesome  fear  of  the  first,  we  are  concerned 
with  faithful  failure,  that  is  to  say,  the  failure  born  of 
faithfulness — not  the  failure  of  faithfulness. 

The  phase  of  failure  that  we  of  to-day  are  chiefly 
liable  to  is  the  result  of  worldliness,  pride  and  sloth. 
Our  position  is  not  unlike  that  of  the  Christians  who 
lived  when  the  faith  began  to  be  popular  in  the  Empire. 
What  has  been  called  the  secularization  of  Chris- 
tianity shortly  took  place.  Compromise  with  the  world 
was  mistaken  for  the  working  of  the  leaven  of  the 
Gospel.  The  temptation  is  for  a  zealous  man  to  try  to 


150  ADVENTURE   FOR   GOD 

be  not  in  the  world  as  well  as  not  of  the  world.  He 
would  safeguard  the  purity  of  the  truth  to  such  a 
degree  that  it  is  quite  apart  from  life.  No  one  can 
fail  to  see  the  peril  of  claiming  every  department  of 
life  for  Christ  and  trying  to  redeem  it,  but  a  less  am- 
bitious course  seems  to  force  us  to  the  admission  that 
the  world  is  too  much  for  Christ,  or  else  that  it  is  in 
the  divine  scheme  that  certain  phases  of  life  are  with- 
out hope  of  regeneration.  It  would  appear  to  me,  how- 
ever, that  just  as  the  nation  brings  its  glory  into  the 
Celestial  City,  so  should  society,  or  the  world  of  com- 
merce, or  the  sphere  of  intellect.  The  dangers  of  striv- 
ing for  this  are  summed  up  powerfully  by  Auberlen.^ 
"The  fundamental  error  of  our  Christian  theory  and 
practice  is  that  we  blend  the  Kingdom  and  the  World 
— the  very  thing  the  Bible  calls  'whoredom.'  .  .  .  The 
deeper  the  Church  penetrated  into  heathenism — the 
very  heart  of  it — the  more  she  herself  became  hea- 
thenish; she  then  no  longer  overcame  the  world,  but 
suffered  the  world  to  overcome  her.  Instead  of  elevat- 
ing the  world  to  her  divine  height,  she  sank  down  to 
the  level  of  the  worldly,  fleshly,  earthly  life;  as  the 
heathen  masses  came  into  the  Church  unconverted, 
so  the  heathenish  worldly  spirit  passed  over  to  the 
Church  without  passing  through  the  death  of  the 

1  Quoted  by  Archbishop  Benson  in  his  posthumous  book  The 
Apocalypse:  A  Study,  pp.  45  ff. 


THE   GOAL  151 

Cross."  Purely  individualistic  Christianity  concerns 
itself  solely  with  the  units  of  society.  Social  Chris- 
tianity, while  not  neglecting  this  fundamental  duty, 
lays  hands  of  sanctification  on  departments  of  organic 
and  organized  life,  beginning  with  the  family,  and  not 
stopping  at  the  nation,  but  boldly  claiming  a  voice  in 
international  affairs.  The  larger  enterprise  is  fraught 
with  peril,  but  the  peril  loses  itself  in  opportunity. 
The  fullest  opportunity  has  its  home  between  a  risk 
and  a  possibility.  The  process  is  neither  one  of  blend- 
ing nor  of  compromise,  but  of  leavening.  It  is  indeed 
a  melancholy  failure,  as  for  the  individual  so  also  for 
any  part  of  the  Church,  to  lose  vision  and  take  on  the 
tone  and  temper  of  time  and  space.  There  is  nothing 
worse  or  more  difficult  to  remedy,  for  compromise  with 
the  world  carries  with  it  the  comfort  of  lotus-eating 
— the  softer  features  of  the  Gospel  are  appropriated 
and  its  disciplines  lost  sight  of.  Side  by  side  in  the 
mind  of  a  Christian  leader  must  lie  a  just  view  of  the 
actual  and  a  clear  view  of  the  ideal.  It  is  this  that  will 
lift  him  up  into  the  realm  of  lofty  independence  that 
accepts  established  custom  only  after  it  has  been  tried 
and  not  found  wanting. 

Pride  is  always  a  prominent  temptation  in  the  lives 
of  those  who  are  of  necessity  forced  into  introspec- 
tion and  subjectivity.  It  puts  the  messenger  before 
the  message,  the  priest  before  the  sacrament,  the  man 


152  ADVENTURE   FOR   GOD 

before  his  God.  But  are  we  not  inclined  to  foster  the 
root  of  pride  by  a  misunderstanding  of  its  real  char- 
acter? Pride  is  not  the  recognition  in  ourselves  of  gifts 
and  graces;  it  is  rather  the  dwelling  upon  them  as  an 
end  in  themselves,  or  as  a  means  of  self-pleasing.  Com- 
mon honesty  compels  a  man  who  has  the  gift  of  ora- 
tory, or  the  grace  of  self-control,  to  recognize  it  just  as 
fully  as  the  brown-eyed  man  knows  the  colour  of  his 
eyes,  or  the  muscular  man  the  power  of  his  physique. 
It  is  a  good  thing  to  measure  our  gifts  as  well  as  we 
know  how.  Once  having  got  their  approximate  size, 
there  is  no  surer  antidote  to  pride  than  the  employ- 
ment to  the  full  in  the  noblest  way  of  what  we  possess. 

As  for  sloth,  in  these  strenuous  days  it  usually  takes 
on  the  form  of  a  lack  of  balance  in  which  worship  is 
outstripped  by  action.  It  is  the  great  unseen  stretches 
of  life  that  are  most  endangered  by  the  spirit  of  the 
age.  The  part  of  life  lived  in  the  public  eye  is  kept 
up  to  pitch,  but  we  are  too  weary,  or  worried,  or  pre- 
occupied, to  take  time  to  become  personally  acquainted 
with  the  eternal  verities.  We  do  not  plan  for  deep  ex- 
cursions into  the  sphere  that  lies  less  than  a  hand's 
breadth  from  our  prie-dieii.  Or  in  moral  matters  we 
are  not  curious  enough  to  try  just  how  high  we  can 
climb  in  the  scale  of  goodness. 

The  commonest  failure  of  the  worldly  leader  is  that 
he  has  nothing  to  show  but  a  flourishing  business 


THE  GOAL  153 

establishment  bearing  the  name  of  a  Church,  and  a 
low  ideal.  That  of  the  proud  man  is  that  he  has  at- 
tached people  to  himself  and  not  to  his  Gospel.  He 
rejoices  over  personal  achievements  with  a  self-con- 
sciousness that  results  in  loss  of  power,  because  it  with- 
draws the  attention  from  the  result  to  be  obtained 
and  centres  it  on  self.  That  of  the  slothful  man,  that 
he  is  seldom  behind  the  veil,  and  his  sermons  are 
nothing  but  quotations  or  platitudes  devoid  of  the 
fire  of  experience.  Grosser  failures  I  have  passed  by, 
as  they  are  too  manifest  to  need  treatment. 

Now  as  to  the  failures  to  which  we  are  bound.  Their 
cause  must  be  the  same  as  brought  Christ  to  the  cross, 
— other-worldliness,  humility  and  spiritual  dihgence. 
It  is  extraordinary  how  one  who  has  been  true  to  these 
standards  looms  up  above  the  able  and  the  learned. 
Perhaps  in  his  lifetime  he  was  not  very  strong  in  the 
pulpit,  he  was  awkward  in  address,  he  had  some  un- 
mistakable flaw  in  character;  but  the  hand  of  death 
has  made  his  whole  life  speak  with  the  eloquence  of 
godliness,  and  smoothed  away  the  wrinkle  in  his  char- 
acter which — how  strange  it  is  we  did  not  recognize 
this  before! — was  incidental.  His  citizenship  was  al- 
ways in  heaven.  His  indifference  to  positive  results 
was  due  to  his  insistence  upon  deep  results.  He  was 
a  guardian  of  motives  and  a  guide  and  sustainer  of 
high  purpose. 


154  ADVENTURE   FOR   GOD 

Humility  is  the  one  grace  that  cannot  be  counter- 
feited. It  is  the  hallmark  of  a  noble  character.  Its 
wearer  knows  his  gifts,  but  he  also  knows  for  what  pur- 
pose he  carries  them.  Being  preoccupied  in  his  en- 
deavour to  employ  them  worthily  he  has  no  time  to 
give  to  admiring  them.  He  values  their  weight  above 
their  beauty. 

Spiritual  diligence  is  never  off  duty.  It  begins  out 
of  sight,  but  it  is  as  much  at  home  in  public  as  in 
private.  Our  Lord's  spiritual  activities  had  their  source 
in  the  unseen  portions  of  His  life,  but  they  never  ceased 
to  flow,  simply  and  naturally.  There  were  but  few 
formal  occasions  in  His  career ;  neither  was  there  any- 
thing unprepared.  The  evangelical  record  is  largely 
made  up  of  common  occurrences  transfigured.  If  we 
were  to  pass  by  the  deeds  which  called  forth  powers 
in  Him  that  we  do  not  individually  possess,  and  to 
make  the  spiritual  attitude  of  the  Master  toward  the 
commonplaces  of  life  our  study  and  pattern,  we  would 
be  in  a  fair  way  to  the  achievement  of  spiritual  dili- 
gence. His  simplicity  was  not  the  simplicity  of  nar- 
rowness. It  was  the  simplicity  of  a  single  motive  which 
made  it  as  easy  to  spiritualize  one  situation  as  another. 
The  simple  life  is  not  the  hfe  that  does  one  thing,  but 
the  life  that  does  all  things  from  one  motive,  and  that 
a  simple  motive. 


THE   GOAL  155 

III 

But  where  is  the  failure  and  the  pain  in  a  life  grounded 
on  such  principles  as  we  have  been  considering?  In 
this:  world-forces  antagonistic  to  Christianity  will 
be  aroused  and  we  shall  be  made  to  feel  the  venom  of 
their  arrows.  You  have  but  to  read  the  honest  biogra- 
phy —  it  is  a  hard  kind  of  biography  to  find  —  of  a 
leader  of  righteousness,  to  learn  the  thousand  ways  in 
which  his  effort  is  impeded  and  wounds  are  inflicted. 
Reduce  the  scale  and  you  have  a  portrait  of  my  lot 
and  yours,  unless  some  early  and  sudden  blow  close 
the  volume  summarily.  Perhaps  it  will  be  in  a  country 
to^vn  where  your  Gethsemane  and  Calvary  will  greet 
you,  perhaps  in  the  shadow  of  a  stately  city  church, 
perhaps  on  the  frontier  of  Christianity.  But  greet  you 
it  will,  if  you  rise  to  your  proper  stature.  We  must 
view  the  case  without  self-pity,  which  next  to  self- 
admiration  is  most  despicable.  Our  early  schemes  will 
blossom  and  flower,  perhaps.  The  road  for  many  miles 
will  be  smooth,  it  may  be.  The  freshness  of  our  vision 
will  not  easily  suffer  extinction.  But  the  inevitable  is 
inevitable.  The  vision  of  youth  will  fade  ;  its  glow  will 
die  as  the  colour  in  the  western  sky  when  night  engulfs 
the  last  throb  of  the  sun.  Friends  will  leave  us.  Some 
of  our  spiritual  children  will  lapse  into  unbelief,  or 
worse.  Before  a  growing  ideal  and  in  the  wisdom  of 


156  ADVENTURE   FOR   GOD 

retrospect  our  earlier  plans  will  look  sophomoric  and 
inadequate.  A  long  pastorate  will  have  taken  the  keen- 
ness off  our  preaching.  Our  parishioners  will  ill  con- 
ceal their  weariness  of  us  —  one  of  the  modern  and 
most  painful  forms  of  crucifixion.  The  younger  men  will 
discuss  questions  our  old-fashioned  minds  are  unable 
to  follow.  The  query  of  the  Baptist  will  rise  to  vex 
us:  "Is  it  not  possible  that  I  have  made  a  mistake? 
Have  I  not  wasted  my  life  in  a  fruitless  struggle.?" 
All  this  is  but  the  common  experience  of  faithful  men. 
I  am  but  transcribing  a  page  from  everyday  history. 
But  the  vision  is  not  dead.  It  has  not  ceased  to  be. 
Once  we  carried  it  as  the  flower  carries  the  morning- 
dew.  Now  it  carries  us  as  the  mother  her  babe.  It  still 
lives, —  lives  with  a  more  abundant  life  than  yesterday. 
But  it  has  passed  from  a  fragrance,  a  fascination,  a 
joy,  into  a  world-force,  a  life  undying,  a  beacon  for 
other  men.  It  has  mingled  with  our  blood.  Half  the 
texture  of  our  lives  is  woven  from  its  threads.  "The 
homely  actual  receives  and  hides  the  shining  ideal,  as 
the  splendours  and  warmth  of  summer  are  reborn  in 
humble  plants  and  springing  grass.  Yet  doubtless  the 
ideal  will  in  time  transform  the  actual  to  its  own 
image."  The  process  is  not  yet  complete.  We  can  fol- 
low only  to  the  edge,  and  the  highest  prophecy  of 
what  lies  beyond  is  little  better  than  a  guess.  For  eye 
hath  not  seen^  nor  ear  heard,  neither  have  entered  into 


THE   GOAL  157 

the  heart  of  man,  the  thing's  which  God  hath  prepared 
for  them  that  love  him} 

As  with  the  vision,  so  with  the  appeal.  The  plain- 
tive cry  of  a  suffering  world  no  longer  kindles  our 
emotions  into  the  half  pain,  half  joy  of  yore.  We  hear 
it  with  emphasized  distinctness.  But  long  since  the 
lines  between  our  intellectual  and  emotional  Hfe  lost 
their  sharpness,  and  well  ordered  aid  is  our  instinctive, 
almost  automatic  response  to  need  within  the  reach 
of  our  failing  strength.  Feverish  pity  has  given  place 
to  dignified  and  disciplined  compassion.  There  has 
been  a  growth,  a  transformation,  not  loss  or  decay. 

The  world  looks  very  evil — we  can  see  its  whole 
breadth  now.  It  requires  no  straining  to  touch  the 
outer  bounds  of  human  life.  The  nations  appear  far- 
ther from  being  won  than  at  the  moment  of  our  first 
glimpse  of  far  lands  and  great  spaces.  But  it  is  only 
because  we  are  ripe  in  knowledge,  rich  in  experience, 
keen  in  discernment,  that  these  things  take  on  this 
guise.  Had  we  seen  when  young  with  the  same  eyes 
wherewith  we  see  now,  we  would  have  a  standard  of 
comparison.  As  it  is,  there  is  none.  We  are  thrown 
back  on  the  faith  that  believes  that  God's  promises 
do  not  fail,  that  no  good  work  falls  short  of  reaching 
fruition,  somewhere,  some  time,  and  the  knowledge 
that  God's  mills  grind  slowly. 
1 1  Cor.  ii,  9. 


158  ADVENTURE   FOR  GOD 

Our  equipment  has  ceased  to  be  a  warrior's  defence 
and  has  become  a  veteran's  consolation.  Armour  is 
still  needed,  the  armour  of  God  at  that,  but  the  bat- 
tle is  over,  and  there  is  nothing  left  for  us  to  do  but 
stand  and  wait.  The  fullest  courage  is  for  the  helpless 
hour  when  our  world-wandering  is  over,  our  hope 

Dwindled  into  a  ghost  not  Jit  to  cope 

With  that  obstreperous  joy  success  ivould  bring. 

Yet  our  spirit  is  unbroken,  our  courage  not  cowed, 
our  faith  not  extinguished.  It  is  only  that  we  rely 
more  on  God,  less  on  man,  beginning  with  self. 
Comely  fear,  such  as  graced  the  Saviour's  soul  in  the 
presence  of  death,  will  be  coloured  with  reverent 
speculation  on  what  lies  beyond.  Nothing  remains  but 
to  compose  ourselves  for  the  finish  because  we  have 
reached  the  Goal. 

For  sudden  the  worst  turns  the  best  to  the  brave, 

The  black  minute 's  at  end, 
And  the  elements  rage,  the  fiend  voices  that  rave, 

Shall  dwindle,  shall  blend, 
Shall  change,  shall  become  first  a  peace  oid  of  pairt^ 

Then  a  light,  then  thy  breast, 
0  thou  soul  of  my  soul!  I  shall  clasp  thee  again. 

And  with  God  be  the  rest ! 

LAUS  DEO! 


By  the  Rt.  Rev.  CHARLES  H.  BRENT,  D.D. 

Bishop  of  the  Philippine  Islands 


WITH  GOD  IN  THE  WORLD 

^th  Impression 

Small  l^mo,  cloth,  $1.00 

Contents:  The  Universal  Art;  Friendship  with  God:  Looking; 
Friendship  with  God:  Speaking;  Fi-iendship  with  God:  The  Re- 
sponse; The  Testing  of  Friendship ;  Knitting  Broken  Friendship; 
Friendship  in  God;  Friendship  in  God  (continued);  The  Church 
in  Prayer;  The  Great  Act  of  Worship;  Witnesses  unto  the  Utter- 
most Part  of  the  Earth;  The  Inspiration  of  Responsibility ;  Appen- 
dix: Where  God  Dwells. 

OPINIONS  OF  THE  PRESS 

Singularly  straightforward,  manly  and  helpful  in  tone. 
They  deal  with  questions  of  living  interest,  and  abound  in 
practical  suggestions  for  the  conduct  of  life.  The  chapters  are 
short  and  right  to  the  point.  The  great  idea  of  Christian  fel- 
lowship with  God  and  man  is  worked  out  into  a  fresh  and  ori- 
ginal form  and  brought  home  in  a  most  effectual  way." 

Living  Church. 

^^The  subjects  treated  in  this  book  are  not  only  admirably 
chosen,  but  they  are  arranged  in  a  sequence  which  leads  the 
mind  naturally  to  ever  higher  levels  of  thought ;  yet  so  simply 
are  they  dealt  with,  and  in  such  plain  language,  that  no  one 
can  fail  to  grasp  their  full  meaning.   .   .   . 

'^'^If  words  of  ours  could  impress  Brotherhood  men  with  the 
power  of  this  book,  they  certainly  would  not  be  lacking.  But 
we  can  only  repeat  that  a  book  so  deeply  spiritual,  so  emi- 
nently practical,  and  so  buoyant  in  its  optimism  ought  to 
have  the  widest  possible  circulation.  We  would  like  to  see 
every  member  of  the  Brotherhood  the  possessor  of  at  least  two 
copies,  one  for  himself  and  one  for  his  friend." 

St.  Andrew's  Cross. 


LONGMANS,  GREEN,  &  CO.,  NEW  YORK 


By  the  Rt.  Rev.  CHARLES  H.  BRENT,  D.  D. 

Bishop  of  the  Philippine  Islands 

THE  CONSOLATIONS  OF  THE  CROSS 

Addresses  on  the  Sevex  Words  of  the  Dying  Lord 

Together  with  Two  Sermons 

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Contents:  Pi-elude;  The  Consolation  of  Chi-isfs  Intercession; 
The  Consolation  of  Present  Peace  and  Anticipated  Joy;  The  Con- 
solation of  Christ's  Love  of  Home  and  Nation;  The  Consolation 
of  the  Atonement ;  The  Consolation  of  Christ's  Conquest  of  Pain; 
The  Consolation  of  Christ's  Completeness;  The  Consolation  of 
Death's  Conquest.  Two  Sermons:  In  Whom  was  no  Guile;  The 
Closing  of  Stewardship. 

*^*^ These  expressive  addresses  ...  we  commend  them  to  all 
who  desire  fresh  and  virile  instruction  on  the  Mystery  of  the 
Cross."  Church  Times. 

'^^  Will  be  heartily  welcomed.  They  reflect  a  deep  and  genuine 
spirituality."  The  Churchman. 

'^'^The  devotional  tone,  the  high  spiritual  standard,  and  the 
pleasing  literary  style  combine  to  make  this  one  of  the  most 
excellent  of  the  volumes  current  for  Good  Friday  use." 

Living  Church. 

'^These  addresses  have  struck  us  very  much."  The  Guardian. 

THE  SPLENDOR  OF  THE  HUMAN  BODY 

A  Reparation  and  an  Appeal 

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Contents:  1.  Order;  2.  Magnitude;  3.  Divinity;  Jf.  Sanctity; 
5.  Glory;  6.  Therefore — . 

'' .  .  .  the  Bishop,  even  in  these  simple  addresses,  shows  his  pro- 
found learning  along  various  lines,  and  at  the  same  time  his 
power  to  use  it  in  plain  and  very  practical  ways."  Living  Church. 

"Wq  consider  this  little  book  to  be  one  which  all  parents 
may  study  with  advantage  and  may  give  to  their  children." 

The  Lancet,  London. 

LONGMANS,  GREEN,  &  CO.,  NEW  YORK 


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